KBA North America, a premier distributor of sheetfed and web offset printing presses for its parent company, global press manufacturer KBA AG, is proud to announce that it has been awarded the prestigious 2011 Printing Industries of America InterTech Technology Award for its unique FlyingJob Change technology. Their 2011 InterTech Technology Award will be presented to KBA at the 2011 Premier Print Awards and InterTech Technology Awards Gala on Sunday, September 11th, 2011 at the Marriott Chicago Downtown during Graph Expo. During the past six years, KBA has captured four InterTech Awards; in 2005 for the Rapida 205 81-inch sheetfed press; in 2006 for the Genius 52 UV offset press; and in 2007 for the Rapida 105's unique Sensoric Infeed System (SIS) sidelay-free infeed feature.
 
"We are very proud to receive the highly-acclaimed 2011 Printing Industries of America InterTech Technology Award," says Mark Hischar, president and chief executive officer of KBA North America. "KBA's Flying JobChange makes a significant technological impact in the market; it allows offset's quality, offset's wide substrates range, and offset's speed, all within digital press technology changeover times.  It is the optimum production technology. No other sheetfed press manufacturer offers this technology – it is a technological breakthrough."
 
The Flying JobChange makes the pressroom faster and more efficient. Plates for each new job can be changed on-the-fly at an impressive speed of 10,000 sheets per hour; then the press can be accelerated back to its production speed of 18,000 sheets per hour (depending on the configuration). This means there is no make-ready downtime and the production can be completed without interruptions.
 
The Flying JobChange

• Drastically reduces production times and machine downtime thus enabling the printer to prepare the press for the next make ready while the press is running.
• Offers practically zero make ready time
• Is perfect for ultra short runs
• Allows multiple processes to take place at the same time without stopping press production; the press is continually running during the process.

 "The Flying JobChange is so productive that it can potentially allow a printing company to replace three presses with only two Rapida 106 41-inch presses due to its significant production gains," says Chris Travis, KBA director of technology. "This yields major savings with utilities, floor space, consumables, manpower and more."
 
The Flying JobChange technology is equipped with automation like the KBA Simultaneous Plate Change, in which the system mounts all plates at the same time in between jobs. It is also equipped with KBA Plate-Ident, a dot matrix code on the lead edge of the plate which identifies that the correct plate is in the correct unit and also sends job data to the press for presetting functions. All of these functions lead to higher output, better print quality and greater substrate and format flexibility.