After the Märkische Allgemeine newspaper in Potsdam near Berlin, Main-Echo in Aschaffenburg has become the latest in a succession of prominent German regional newspaper houses to opt for KBA’s flexible, four-high Commander CL.

The highly automated 48-page newspaper web press with three reelstands, three four-high towers and a folder is scheduled to go live in autumn 2014, replacing a manroland press in operation since 1999. The KBA Commander CL for Aschaffenburg is already the seventh flexibly automatable press of this type to be sold to Germany and the tenth worldwide since its launch two years ago by the Würzburg-based global market leader.

Ulrich Eymann, Main-Echo’s managing director: “The Commander CL’s high level of productivity and its fast edition changes driven by practical automation solutions allow us to optimise our local editions and economically strengthen our newspaper titles. In addition, cutting-edge inking technology ensures a high print quality. The KBA Commander CL totally convinced us with its technical solutions when we researched the market.”

Successful regional media house

The mid-size, family-run company with over 300 employees is broadly diversified with high-quality print products and innovative online solutions, a mail delivery service, software services and a travel agency. Along with the newspaper printing house, two printing houses which specialise in commercial and form printing and an art title publishing house also belong to the Main-Echo group. Founded in 1945, the daily is printed in eight local editions in region around Aschaffenburg, Miltenberg and the district of Main-Spessart, situated east of Frankfurt/Main. Including the titles the Bote vom Untermain, Lohrer Echo and Wertheimer Zeitung, the Main-Echo has a weekday circulation of over 75,000 copies and about a quarter of a million readers in the lower Main region of Germany. In addition, the media house also publishes the consumer magazine top shop. This weekly free is delivered in six sub-editions to over 230,000 households in its distribution area. The Kurier am Wochenende for non-subscribers, the monthly event magazine Stadtmagazin, two telephone and business directories for the region and further monthly titles also belong to the house’s product spectrum. With over 10 million hits a month the internet platform Main-Netz profits from the Main-Echo publishing house’s wealth of news.

Tailored technology for fast job changes

The double-width Commander CL will be engineered for the Rhine format (cylinder circumference: 1,020mm/41.2in; maximum web width: 1,400mm/55.1in). In straight production it can print up to 85,000 full-colour newspapers per hour. The features include:

• 3 KBA Pastomat reelstands embedded in a KBA Patras A automatic reel handling system with stripping station,
• Automatic pagination changers,
• 3 printing towers with automatic plate changers, RollerTronicautomated roller locks, fan-out compensation, automatic colour-register controls, CleanTronic cylinder washing systems, automatic inking-unit cleaning and central ink pumping,
• 3 turner bars (with half-cover web leads and spadea production capabilities), a folder superstructure with three formers, skip slitter, ribbon and section stitcher, and a KBA KF5 jaw folder,
• Cut-off register and web-edge and web-centre controls, and pre-former web guides,
• 2 KBA ErgoTronic consoles with EasyTronic waste- and time-saving press start-up (EasyStart) and automated run-down (EasyClean-up) as well as
• KBA PressNet for scheduling, presetting and process control including a proofing system.

Provision has been made for the addition of facilities for the production of glued four-page centre spreads.