Market leader boasts cutting-edge technology and extensive service packages
As a longstanding exhibitor at IFRA Expo, Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA), the global market leader in newspaper printing technology, will be manning a stand (in hall 8) at the successor event, the World Publishing Expo (WPE) 2012 from 29 to 31 October in Frankfurt am Main.

Following on from the high-tech Commander CT and Cortina in previous years, KBA's focus this year will also be on the Commander CL (CLassic) launched at IFRA Expo in Vienna twelve months ago, which is sure to attract printers looking for new kit. This four-high tower press with H-type printing units is almost as compact as the high-end Commander CT and Cortina, and can be customised with automation modules, e.g. retrofittable automatic plate changers.

Commander CL's automation modules a popular choice
Since the Commander CL's successful launch twelve months ago, five press lines with a total of 152 printing units have been ordered by newspaper publishers in Germany and the USA, with the latest press recently sold to Fränkische Landeszeitung in Ansbach, Germany. After the WPE the first two presses from this new KBA series will go live at Zeitungsverlag Oberbayern in Penzberg and at Oberbayerisches Volksblatt in Rosenheim. In addition over the past year twelve more large double- or triple-wide Commander CTs, some of them multi-unit press lines, have gone or will soon go live in Germany, England, Austria, Sweden and Italy. At the beginning of June a large KBA Cortina with twelve printing towers and four thermal dryers was fired up at Gulf News in Dubai. KBA Colora and Comet presses were sold to printers in Canada, China and the Middle East. Despite competition from online media, the newspaper industry is still investing in new kit, albeit on a smaller scale than before the financial crisis.

Retrofits, upgrades, deployment of specialists etc.
KBA is addressing these market changes, and alongside technical innovations in the print sector, the inventor of the cylinder press has consistently expanded its service portfolio. KBA recently entered an alliance with the automation specialist EAE in Ahrensberg to meet an emerging demand for retrofits for older web presses. A longstanding KBA customer, M. Dumont Schauberg in Cologne, opted for an experienced team of experts from PrintHouse Services (PHS), a newly founded KBA subsidiary, to supply on-site technical support for the company's presses. In addition to classic service packages and maintenance KBA is offering a growing range of upgrades to enhance the production flexibility of existing presses and accommodate new forms of advertising. Possible options include retrofitting skip slitters, quarterfolds, Zip'n'Buy, glued plough folds for four-page centre spreads plus section and ribbon stitchers.

For further information visit the KBA WEP press conference at 1.30pm on 29 October in the Cosmopolitan Lounge (hall T9).