On 25/26 March the Centre d’Impression Edipresse Lausanne in Bussigny, Switzerland, was the venue for the fourth user workshop for KBA’s waterless offset Cortina presses, whose numbers are steadily increasing. The twelfth press line will soon to go live at M. DuMont Schauberg in Cologne and a contract for the sixteenth press to leave the production line was inked shortly before the workshop by Germany’s Rheinische Post in Düsseldorf.

After four years of coldset newspaper production and two years of heatset semi-commercial production with the Cortina, the user workshops have become a popular venue for comparing notes on choosing the right consumables and coming up to speed with the latest advances in technology and press design, backed by tests and extensive documentation.

Participants’ readiness to reveal their companies’ technical strategies and publishing ploys engenders a community spirit among these pioneers of waterless technology. Discussion is founded on practical applications, embracing both economic and technical issues such as energy consumption, production waste, environmental credentials, makeready, utilisation levels, maintenance frequency, plate service life, data preparation and platemaking, achievable image quality on different substrates, the behaviour of inks and blankets, and various approaches for enhancing performance.

The first day closed with the customary dinner followed by a tour of Centre d’Impression Edipresse Lausanne during a night production run and, for a few late birds, more shoptalk over a beer. The focus of the second day was on various presentations and an exchange of news and views among participants and KBA specialists.