KBA North America announces that it has set a new record with the installation of ten presses to customers in the Southeast during 2011. The press models range from the award-winning Genius 52 UV 20-inch press to the high-production large-format Rapida 142 56-inch press.

“We are pleased to partner with many outstanding printing firms and provide them with KBA’s high quality printing presses,” says Mark Hischar, president and CEO of KBA North America. “Sam Creel, the regional sales manager in the Southeast, has worked diligently with these firms to provide his knowledge and expertise and supply a seamless installation during the past year.”

During the first quarter of 2011, Malnove, the largest independent folding carton manufacturer in North America, equipped its Jacksonville, Florida facility with a new KBA Rapida 142 56-inch seven-color sheetfed press with anilox coater and delivery extension. Malnove chose the press to take advantage of its full array of automation, such as the unique KBA DensiTronic Pro technology, a combined density and color measuring system for quality control both during and after printing, and its fully-automatic plate changing system that changes all the plates on the press sequentially, thus increasing productivity and saving critical time. The new KBA Rapida 142 will also enable Malnove to continue its growth in inline UV printing.

A leading Southern paperboard packaging manufacturer with a diverse array of customers added a KBA Rapida 142 56-inch seven-color press to its facility. They are using the new KBA press to provide packaging to the food, medical/pharmaceutical, candy, tobacco, automotive, household product, apparel, sports equipment, and toy markets.

First-time customer Artistic Color Graphics, a Chattanooga, Tenn., printer installed a KBA Rapida 105 41-inch six-color press with UV during 2011. This commercial printer with several decades of experience offers an array of services from prepress to variable data fulfilment and produces annual reports, brochures, art prints, manuals, catalogs, calendars, booklets, and static cling.

A KBA Genius 52 20-inch press joined an existing KBA Rapida 105 41-inch seven-color press with digital CIP4 during 2011 at Marshall & Bruce Printing Company, a Nashville, Tenn. specialist in general commercial printing and packaging and fulfillment services. “We are quite impressed with the Genius’ ability to print excellent quality on an extremely wide variety of substrates across a broad caliper spectrum,” says Chip Smith, president of Marshall & Bruce. “We plan to use the Genius in conjunction with our KBA Rapida 105 press where both will be required to run high-end commercial, point-of-purchase, and packaging work on a variety of substrates. We also plan to print projects for the gift card and horticultural markets on the Genius.”

Toward the end of 2011, PaperWorks Industries Inc., a leading North American integrated full-service packaging provider, placed an order for a new Rapida 142 56-inch seven-color press with UV capabilities to be installed at its Mt. Gilead, NC facility. The press was delivered in January 2012 with a mid-March start-up date after installation and press training.

“Our new KBA Rapida 142 will service our entire customer base of high-end packaging brands,” says Jim Downey, general manager of the Mt. Gilead, NC facility. “It will provide us with the ability to offer even faster turnaround times and higher quality and allow us to be more responsive to our customers due to the unique features on press that we didn’t have before.”

These features, explains Downey, include UV capabilities as well as KBA’s unique QualiTronic Color Control closed loop inline color density measurement and control system, the first of its kind in sheetfed offset. Using a highly-sensitive color camera to measure the control bar on every sheet, the QualiTronic Color Control system compares the density values to reference densities and triggers automatic ink-key adjustments when a discrepancy is obtained. The QualiTronic Color Control system provides corrections to be made within ten sheets of an error being detected, cuts waste by shortening press run-up to saleable color, and provides consistent inking throughout the entire print run while cutting waste and optimizing print quality.

Five Rapida 106 41-inch presses were installed at two large customer sites in the Southeast. One of them is a leading manufacturer of consumer packaging while another focuses on the educational market.

KBA North America is located in Dallas, Texas and a member of the KBA Group. Established 195 years ago in Wuerzburg, Germany, Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) is the oldest and second largest press manufacturer worldwide. KBA's banner, 'People & Print', reflects its dual focus as a leading innovator for print entrepreneurs. The group's product range is the broadest in the industry; itsportfolio includes commercial and newspaper web presses, sheetfed offset presses in all format classes, special presses for books, inserts, banknotes, securities, metal-decorating, smart cards, discs plus inkjet systems. For more information visit the company's web site at www.kba.com