KBA North America, a leading sheetfed offset press manufacturer based in Williston, Vt., has installed a KBA Rapida 105 universal 41-inch six-color plus coater at Seydaco Packaging Corp., a manufacturer of quality folded cartons located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The press was installed in May 2004. “We’ve seen a huge improvement in productivity and quality using our new KBA Rapida 105,” says David Seychell, President of Seydaco Packaging Corp. “The press has saved our company make-ready times and changeover time from one job to the other. We’re so impressed with the quality of the Rapida 105 that our policy is to put all new customers or first time jobs from existing customers on the KBA Rapida. The KBA Rapida is booked solid with work all the way until the end of the year.” Seydaco Packaging Corp. prints only folding carton stock, either recycled or solid bleach sulfite (SBS) boxboard, on a variety of thicknesses, from one to six colors. Most of its work is for the high-end highly-critical food industry with some jobs for pharmaceutical and automobile/hardware packaging. The firm operates two shifts with a two person crew per shift for the Rapida 105. “The Rapida’s amazing automation has helped us tremendously,” says Seychell. “Our other presses do not have automatic blanket washers, auto roller washers, etc.” Seydaco’s new Rapida press is ready-equipped for UV hybrid printing with an end-of-press dryer. “Eventually we’re going to offer UV hybrid printing,” says Seychell. “We’re approaching this in two steps over the next 12 to 15 months. We specified the press for UV hybrid because of customer demand but also because it is a value-added service that we can sell and it will differentiate us from ordinary gloss coating.” Seydaco Packaging Corp. is a 41-employee company located in a 55,000 sq ft facility for manufacturing and warehousing.In just a short period, Seydaco has become one of the biggest suppliers of critical high-quality graphics for leading manufacturers of cake, pie, pastry and pizza cartons nationwide. Through its network of distributors, Seydaco also supplies a complete range of its own proprietary preprinted food-safe cardboard products for the quick serve industry.