February 2, 2004 -- The Frankenthal facility of Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) has announced that Hubert Burda Media has just ordered a TR10B rotogravure press engineered for a web width of 3.68m (144.9in) for the media group’s Offenburg facility. The press is due to be delivered from January 2005 onwards and will enter production at the end of April that year. Subject to planning approval, the new high-tech press will be installed in a new press hall to be built between the existing printing plant and the media park buildings. The architecture will blend in excellently with the existing premises consisting of a stylish car park, a tastefully renovated multi-storey building and new premises in which publishing is located. Speaking about the investment decision, Dr. Paul-Bernhard Kallen, technology director at Hubert Burda Media, and Egon Weimer, director of Burda Druck Gmbh Offenburg said: ”Our printing house in Offenburg has already benefited from investments totalling €35m (approx. US$44m) over the last five years and we are now investing €30m (US$37.75m) in state-of-the-art rotogravure technology and its system peripherals. Competition in rotogravure printing in Europe is fierce and we know from market and competition analyses that this situation is not going to change in coming years. This fact illustrates just how important the new high-performance press is in securing the medium and long-term future of the Offenburg plant and jobs in this area.” State-of-the-art production technology The new KBA TR10B has a steel substructure and comprises a double reelstand with automatic reel loading and core removal. Positioned above the reelstand, the eight printing units feature a double-decker trolley and other equipment for fully automatic forme cylinder changes. KBA’s well-known ALADIN presetting system ensures that human intervention to change the printing couples for a new print run is kept to a minimum. The double-width asymmetrical turner bar superstructure automatically adjusts to the new production too. Sixteen ribbons ensure a broad range of production possibilities to output a host of different products. The rope webbing-up system from KBA automatically feeds the web from the reelstand to the turner bar superstructure and allows the operators to complete makeready work at the same thereby ensuring that job changeovers are as quick as possible. The double width folder features individual AC servo motors and a cylinder ratio of 7:7. With an output of 60,000 copies per hour this equates to a web speed of over 15mps (2,950fpm). With individual drives in the superstructure too, there is no need for multi-step reduction gearing and drive shafts. The press is operated via modern control console technology for safe and user-friendly control. An error reporting system and a modem for remote maintenance and support ensure the best possible operational availability for the entire production line.