KBA North America announces that Walter G. Anderson, Inc., a leading independent supplier of folding cartons, is the first printer in the U.S. to install the newly-launched high-speed Rapida 145 57-inch press with coater at its new facility in Newton, Iowa. The firm has been utilizing the press “under wraps” since August 2011 prior to its official debut at Drupa 2012, scheduled for May 3-16 in Düsseldorf, Germany. KBA will be giving demonstrations of the new Rapida 145 at its large 37,700ft² stand in Hall 16, Stand C47.

“Our customers are demanding higher quality and faster turnaround and makeready times,” says Marc Anderson, president and CEO of Walter G. Anderson, Inc.  “The large-format KBA Rapida 145 with the latest technological advances meets these needs. We’re very pleased with the production it gives us.”

Breakthrough press
Although the firm has had a long history of purchasing KBA presses since 1985, management did due diligence in researching other manufacturers for this latest large format press acquisition. “We looked really hard at the entire market of large format presses,” says Anderson. “When we learned about and saw the Rapida 145 in action, we knew it was the breakthrough press we were seeking. KBA has a strong leading reputation in large format and our prior eight KBA presses have operated very well.”

Anderson cites a number of advantages on the Rapida 145. “The technological ingenuities on this press are amazing,” he says. “The run speed of 17,000 sph is the highest among large format presses in this class and we’re certainly taking advantage of it. Plus we were impressed with the redesign of the feeder as well as the new delivery extension and delivery. All of these features provide a real advantage to our business. I would certainly recommend this press for its fast run speeds and its quick changeovers. It’s a quantum leap forward in large format.”

The packaging market, especially in consumer areas such as food, has continued a trend toward a variety of substrates, higher quality, shorter run lengths, and faster packaging delivery. To maintain its leadership position, WG Anderson has responded to these market demands by “delivering a quality product in a short time frame with maximum customer service,” says Anderson.

“Our new Rapida 145 allows us to respond to these critical market demands,” he says. “Quality is absolutely a top factor for our customers. They visit our facility and see what we are able to accomplish on press, especially with color control, and are very excited. The DensiTronic Professional for quality monitoring quickly scans each sheet and provides data to our press crew as well as a fingerprint of the job to our customers. For those quick turn, short makeready jobs, it allows us fast repeatability and press throughput.”

The new press was installed at WG Anderson’s new 175,000 sq ft facility in Newton, Iowa, outside of Des Moines, which was purchased in February 2011. Anderson required the additional space with the continual growth of its business and to better serve its customers. After several months of transforming the facility into a packaging plant, the Rapida 145 arrived in August 2011. “KBA has been a genuine partner with us,” says Anderson. “They continue to be supportive and offer on-site training as we bring new press operators onboard. It was imperative to have them by our side to support the start-up of the new press in a new facility. The installation and start-up went very smoothly and at this point, the Rapida 145 is operating with two shifts and soon moving to a three-shift operation.”

Anderson reveals that the press crew cites the user-friendliness of the Rapida 145 and its ability to pre-set different options as their most popular features. The crew is utilizing board stock from 16 pt to 32 pt on press with substrates such as CRB and CUK.

Another important feature of the Rapida 145 is its focus on being environmentally-friendly, an important consideration made by WG Anderson. The press’s new technology provides power savings and decreased power consumption as well as shorter makereadies to reduce waste as well asenergy-saving KBA VariDry^BLUE dryers.

Press investment is a selling tool
“KBA is paying attention to putting a quality press on the market that is needed,” says Anderson. ““We’re already seeing tremendous customer interest with our large-format Rapida 145 due to its new technology. The investment in this press is a selling tool for our company.”

At Drupa 2012, KBA will unveil to the public for the very first time a plinth-mounted six-color Rapida 145 with new coater, triple-length extended delivery and automated pile logistics. The Drupa model Rapida 145 will be equipped with many of these impressive features:

• Maximum production speed of 17,000sph in straight printing with the high-speed package  
• 15,000sph in perfecting mode with the new three-drum perfecting unit
• DriveTronic SIS sidelay-free infeed and DriveTronic SPC direct drives for fast, simultaneous plate changing
• CleanTronic Synchro system (two washing beams) for simultaneous washing of ink rollers, blankets and impression cylinders parallel to plate changing,
• CleanTronic ReInk, a new system for extremely fast inking unit washing
• New coater with simultaneous coating form changing (DriveTronic SFC)
• Fast, one-man replacement of the exchangeable anilox roller sleeves (AniSleeve)
• New AirTronic delivery with high-level Venturi sheet guiding
• Dynamic sheet brake
• Console-based preset capabilities
• New HighFlow Chamber blade chamber for the coating system
• New ErgoTronic console with wall screen, picture-in-picture function and integrated color measurement and control system (QualiTronic ColorControl) for quality monitoring
• QualiTronic ICR inline register control
• QualiTronic PDF provides an inline comparison between the print result and the original PDF file
• Energy-saving KBA VariDry^BLUE dryers