KBA North America, a leading sheetfed offset press manufacturer based in Williston, Vt., is announcing that UniGraphic Inc., a premier full-service general commercial and large-format printer located in Woburn, Mass., has chosen to install two KBA presses: a Rapida 105 41-inch seven-color sheetfed offset press and a 74 Karat digital offset waterless press. Both presses will be installed simultaneously in July 2006 with a planned start-up in September 2006. “Over the past seven years, we’ve been positioning ourselves as a full-service printer with the ability to produce a wide variety of jobs, from postcards to billboards,” says Bob Quinlan, Unigraphic’s president. “The two KBA Rapida presses will help us to expand even further into new markets. With the Rapida 105 41-inch press, we plan to move aggressively into packaging, printing on synthetic, and using its hybrid and UV technology. The KBA 74 Karat gives us a larger sheet size (20 x 29-inch) for the short-run digital market with very high-quality output. Up till this point, our maximum sheet size in digital offset printing was 13 x 18-inches.” KBA presses: unique and versatile Quinlan says he chose the KBA presses due to their uniqueness and versatility. The new KBA Rapida 105 will give UniGraphic the ability to print on packaging substrates up to 48 pt board stock, whereas in the past, the printer was limited to up to 18 pt on their existing presses. The new 105 also offers an additional printing unit that UniGraphic will use for special colors and applications. “We see the UV market as a huge, growing area that we intend to utilize to help our customers differentiate their products,” says Quinlan. “And KBA is the leader in offering hybrid/UV-capable presses. In the past, if we had a UV job, we had to send it to another printer. Now we have control over the job and the ability to do our own. Plus, KBA has a unique coating and inking technology that is far superior to their competition. The KBA presses offer faster makeready, less waste, higher run rates, simplicity of use, and consistency of production.” Adding the KBA 74 Karat digital offset press is another jewel on UniGraphic’s line of press models. The 74 Karat 29-inch digital offset press produces waterless print quality and consistent color on a variety of paper media as well as substrates such as onionskin, board, plastics and canvas. The Karat features the unique Gravuflow inking system. Combined with an integrated direct imaging system, the 74 Karat offers a quick makeready of around 15 minutes from approved-sheet to approved-sheet, low waste of less than 10 sheets and ease of use. Sophisticated, unique digital printing department “With our new 74 Karat, we’ll have a very sophisticated, unique digital printing department,” says Quinlan. “We’ll be able to produce new work that we couldn’t do before, such as short-run pocket folders with aqueous coating. No other competitor will have the range of printing devices that we’ll have to offer: a six-color HP Indigo 3000 12 x 18-inch, a four-color Kodak 5034DI DirectPress 13 x 18-inch, and the 74 Karat 20 x 28-inch.” Having established its high-end reputation in the prepress field, UniGraphic has aggressively been adding digital, commercial and large format printing for the past eight years. The diversification model has succeeded. For the past three years, UniGraphic has been posting 30% growth each year. Expertise; high-quality reputation “It’s been an easy transition for our company,” says Shawn Pothier, sales and marketing manager at UniGraphic. “We already had prepress files from our customers ready for output, so why not do the printing ourselves and ensure top quality service from beginning to end? The main reason why customers come to us and stay with us is our expertise, reputation for quality work, on-time delivery, and partnership and consultation with them on their projects.” The KBA Rapida 105 41-inch seven-color sheetfed press with coater is equipped with an array of KBA high-tech systems, including KBA’s Logotronic management system and KBA’s Densitronic S closed loop color control system, a combined density and color measuring system for quality control both during and after printing. “We’ve never had management and color control systems this sophisticated on a press,” says Quinlan. “The Logotronic system will provide our customers with actual reports about how their job was printed. This is so important! The Densitronic S closed loop color control system will be a great value to our pressmen in providing the highest possible quality of color for their jobs.” For more than four decades, UniGraphic has been a leader in New England’s printing industry. While the firm has become widely known for its consistently excellent commercial printing and pre-press work, Unigraphic, overtime, has established expertise in many other essential services. Today, the 150-employee firm is known for its dynamic large format printing, expert image retouching, and as the premier digital print shop in the region. Housed in a 70,000 sq ft facility outside of Boston along the “technology highway”, Unigraphic’s dedication to its craft allows the firm to offer a full range of printing services under one roof and also to unfailingly deliver on-time, affordable, high-quality results. The firm is recognized by Graphic Arts Monthly magazine as one of the top 20 US prepress/premedia operations with sales of $17 million and prepress sales of $10 million. Its clients include a wide variety of well-known international corporate brands as well as several large advertising agencies.