KBA North America, a global press manufacturer based in Dallas, Texas, announces that Rand Graphics, a Wichita, Kansas print specialist in point-of-purchase applications, has purchased a KBA Rapida 205 five-color 81-inch sheetfed press with coater. The Rapida 205, the largest press model in the world, is due to be delivered to Rand’s facility in June 2011.
 
“Not only are we excited to install this amazing press but our customers are excited too,” says Randy Vautravers, president of Rand Graphics. “It’s an opportunity for them to create new work and an opportunity for us to gain in efficiency, faster throughput, and flexibility while being one of the few printers in the country with this award-winning press.”
 
The KBA Rapida 205, which is custom-built in Germany, is a revolutionary piece of equipment that prints sheets up to 81 X 59-inches. The press produces extra-large format, high-quality products in a highly cost efficient manner. This is the first press of this size to offer a wide range of automated technologies that provide for extremely high print quality and low make-ready times.  This press is significant because with its “one-of-a-kind” configuration and its high degree of automation, it brings massive efficiencies to the production of printed sheets, and with its UV drying capabilities, it will print on any substrate. In 2005, Printing Industries of America awarded KBA the prestigious InterTech Award for the Rapida 205.
 
Purchasing the new Rapida 205 press maintains Rand’s customer commitment and mission to continue to make substantial investments in equipment, resulting in exceptional quality and comprehensive capabilities in offset, screen, and digital. After the Rapida 205 is installed and running, Rand will be retiring an older Harris 78-inch five-color UV press.
 
“For the past 12 years, we’ve been operating the Harris press and it produced really nice work,” says Vautravers. “However, it was the only choice in the market. When KBA introduced the Rapida 205, we took a look at one of the cylinders on display at a Chicago trade show and it piqued our interest. This past summer, we began to talk to KBA about purchasing a 40-inch press but our discussion led into the Rapida 205 and the significant benefits it could bring us. There’s no question it will make us much more efficient. It will significantly reduce our make-ready, increase our speed, reduce our spoilage, and allow us produce and output more jobs.”
 
Over the years, Rand Graphics has garnered a reputation as a pioneer in printing on unique substrates. “We print on poly banner, vinyl, and pressure sensitive,” says Vautravers. “You name it, we print on it. This ability has set us apart from other P-O-P printers. Our Harris press prints on materials ranging from poly to plastics to paper with thicknesses up to .025. It was important to us that the Rapida 205 could accomplish the same type of work.”
 
The installation of the Rapida 205 will mark the first press to be purchased from KBA by Rand Graphics. “We’ve always had presses from another manufacturer and they’ve been good to us. But our needs changed and we needed a large format press that they couldn’t offer us. KBA, on the other hand, has a distinguished reputation for its presses including the Rapida 205. KBA took us to England and Germany to see their factory and our press being built. We’re excited to build a partnership with them.”