KBA North America, a leading supplier of sheetfed offset and digital presses based in Williston, VT, will be displaying its award-winning Genius 52 UV sheetfed offset press at Graph Expo. The displayed press will have a raised kit, which will allow increased pile heights during the operation of the press. Another new option for the Genius is inkjet printing personalization. The press showcased at Graph Expo will be producing jobs on a variety of substrates, such as paper, board, plastic, and lenticular, showing off its versatility, flexibility, and quality. Most recently, KBA received the prestigious 2006 InterTech Technology Award from Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (PIA/GATF) for its Genius 52 UV. This new innovative personalization option is available through the in line alphaJet C continuous inkjet system for single sheet marking with variable imprints, such as letters, numbers and barcodes. The inkjet system is an economical way to produce personalized messages on the Genius 52 UV with low consumption rates. The optional raised kit on the Genius 52 UV gives all printers the ability to increase pile height during the operation of the press. This higher pile height allows printers to utilize a variety of substrates, such as lenticular, paper, board, and plastic, with more continuous running speeds and as a result less pile changes. “We are very proud to receive the highly-acclaimed PIA/GATF InterTech Award for the Genius 52 UV sheetfed offset press,” says Ralf Sammeck, KBA’s chief executive officer and president. “But we at KBA never stand still. That’s why we are displaying the Genius, which we feel answers our customers’ needs. Here at Graph Expo we’ll be able to show attendees’ first-hand how these two options can be beneficial to their businesses.” World’s first waterless UV press The Genius 52 UV is the world’s first waterless UV sheetfed offset press. The maximum sheet size is 14 3/16 x 20 1/2” and it can operate at 8,000sph. The press has the world’s widest stock range in this format; from 60lb to 32pt and since it is waterless technology the makeready times and print quality in a category of its own. The function of the Genius 52 UV is to allow small to medium format printers, plastic printers, packaging houses, lenticular printers, screen printers and general commercial printers to enter new markets with an economic, reliable, efficient and brand new distinctive solution. The press also has a unique and new design with an extremely small footprint. Ground-breaking new technology The ground-breaking new Genius 52 UV, says Chris Travis, Technology Manager of KBA, has taken small format sheetfed presses to a new level in terms of print quality, ease of use, stock ranges and variety of substrates, all in a design that has never been used before. The specialized KBA Genius 52 UV press with keyless inking, waterless technology, extended delivery and dryers is designed to print on a variety of paper, board and plastics such as lenticular, ABS, PVC, PC etc. It features an automatic plate changing device that guarantees short set-up times, reliable reproducibility, and brilliant offset quality. The Genius 52 control console features a touch screen display that can be slid from one end of the press to the other for easy press operator access. The press prints in four or five colors with UV curing inks that rapidly and completely harden through an efficient integrated drying system thus allowing further processing such as laminating or punching immediately afterwards with no waiting period required. Distinctive appearance It is the satellite cylinder arrangement with a central impression cylinder which lends the Genius 52 UV its small footprint and distinctive appearance. The press stands apart from its traditional counterparts by way of this compact design, but above all the design and function of its inking units. Its high quality and ease of use are fueled by its waterless and UV technology with no ink keys. The design of the anilox inking units on the Genius 52 UV effectively eliminates the ghosting effects typical for a classic offset process. The combination of an anilox inking system, waterless process and the revolutionary, self-calibrating inking unit with keyless ink metering ensure a predictably fast production start in high quality and with an absolute minimum of initial waste. Maintenance-free use Printers who have already installed the Genius 52 UV praise the press. “One of the biggest benefits of the Genius 52 is that the press just keeps running and running without having to wash-up,” says Bob Gay, president of The Mallard Press, an offset and digital printing company located in Lombard, IL. that installed the press in December 2005. “We don’t need to wash-up the press every night because the ink remains stable on press and only dries with UV light rays. We can go weeks without washing up the press until we needed to put in a PMS color. It saves our press operators a tremendous amount of time. Our day-to-day start-up is as simple as turning on the power supply and is virtually maintenance-free.” Gay continues, “It only takes 10 minutes to produce a sheet on the Genius that is up to color and will remain that same color throughout the press run. Running to density numbers that don’t fluctuate has its benefits. Just let the press do its thing by running consistent ink density no matter how much ink coverage there is on the sheet. No ghosting, no ink and water balance issues, no drying problems, no traditional press problems to deal with. If the color does not look right, then the problem is probably in prepress and should be adjusted in prepress. Installing the Genius allows us to be more efficient. We’re able to capitalize in the growth of short-run quick-turn color work along with the ability to print on any substrate. The KBA Genius gives us predictable consistent offset quality color sheet after sheet no matter how much coverage is on the job. We just load the plates, check register, and print!” Custom plastic card manufacturer first to install the Genius Custom Plastic Card Company, a full-service printer and producer of custom plastic cards located in Pompano Beach, Florida, was the first firm in the U.S. to install a KBA Genius 52 UV press. The 100-employee firm, established in 1983, is a leader in its field, catering to a wide variety of clients in the U.S., South America, the Caribbean, and Europe, from the retail, corporate, hospitality, gift, loyalty, and prepaid telephone card markets. Not only does the firm produce custom plastic cards but specialty items, such as table tents, rulers, door hangers, and magnets. “The KBA Genius 52 UV press gives us the ability to print large volumes of jobs on .030 mil plastic that we couldn’t do before,” says Tony Gardner, president of Custom Plastic Card. “On our other presses, we could only print 50,000 to 100,000 per day; now with the Genius 52 UV we can print a half a million or more in one day. It greatly adds to our capacity and our service.” The firm is also impressed with the design of the press and the increased productivity it enables them. “The Genius 52 UV is designed with only one gripper bar,” says Matt Bayer, the Genius 52 UV press operator at Custom Plastic Card. “That allows the press to produce higher detail and perfect registration throughout the press run.” Bevy of benefits In its six months of operation, Custom Plastic Card has found the Genius 52 UV to offer a bevy of benefits. “We’re able to change plates and set-ups very quickly all with a minimal amount of waste,” says Doug Upton, printing plant manager at Custom Plastic Card. “We download customer files from our FTP site and drop them into templates in our Macs then send the files computer-to-plate to the press. We don’t have to make any adjustments with the plates. Plus the waste is incredibly low on this press and we like the fact that it is waterless. I think this press prints the best color that we’ve ever seen.” Crawford Industries, Crawfordsville, Ind., is well-known in North America for its graphic quality polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) sheet for information and consumer packaging, advertising and promotional products and other graphic quality applications. The firm’s nationwide clientele include such household names as Xerox, Verizon Wireless, Cingular, IBM, Chrysler, Nordstrom, and L’Oreal. “We felt that we could get a higher-quality image using an offset method rather than screen printing,” explains Earl Guinter, Crawford’s manager of sales and marketing. “Our customers were giving us more detailed images to produce and jobs with shorter makeready times and faster throughput.” To enable the firm to continue using its polyethylene and polypropylene plastic substrates, Crawford Industries selected the KBA Genius 52 UV offset press. Full color, rich vibrancy, great margins “The Genius 52 UV gives us much better image quality,” says Guinter. “Plus, it has the capability of producing short-run jobs with very low waste and excellent margins. We’re able to set-up quickly on the Genius with a few set-up sheets. It allows us to quickly and easily run our day-in and day-out business with quick change-over between jobs. In the past, we’d produce a two-color screen printed product; now with the Genius 52 UV we can produce a full-color flood print with rich vibrancy. Our clear and frost polypropylene plastic put through the Genius has been very well received in the market. And when we lay down ink on polyethylene white, the image really pops.”