January 11, 2005 -- Throughout the summer and fall of 2004, KBA North America, a leading sheetfed offset press manufacturer based in Williston, Vt., was busy partnering with its customers and installing a variety of sheetfed offset presses at their sites. Commercial: The very first Drupa-version large format sheetfed press was installed at Allied Printing Services Inc., a large sheetfed and web commercial and financial printer serving customers nationwide and located in Manchester, Connecticut. Allied Printing took delivery of the new KBA Rapida 142 56” six-color large format press with aqueous coating in early September 2004 and had the press up and running by late September/early October 2004. Three reasons drove the firm to buy the press: first, Allied produces many long-run sheetfed jobs and this press will help them in that area; second, the Rapida 142 is a niche machine that will differentiate and separate Allied from their competition; third, since Allied has been buying out large format printing for some time now, its own large format press allows the company to control its production schedules better and it gives them control over their own large format jobs. Challenge Printing, a premier Minnesota-based commercial sheetfed printer, purchased the first new Drupa-model Rapida 105 41-inch six-color sheetfed press with hybrid UV coating and drying from the show floor at October’s Graph Expo 2004. The new press was delivered immediately following the show. Challenge chose the new Rapida 105 after seeing it in action at drupa 2004 in May. The company was quite impressed with the new design of the press and its new technology. Challenge Printing is using the new Rapida 105 press in tandem with its existing Rapida 105 to help with capacity. “We’re excited to be gaining a press with UV hybrid capabilities,” says Lothenbach. “That is an area that is really growing for us.” The PLM Group, one of Canada’s largest commercial printers located in Markham, Ontario, has started-up its large-format KBA Rapida 162A 64-inch six-color sheetfed press with coater and extended delivery. The press was installed the fall of 2004 at PLM’s Duffield Drive location. The KBA Rapida 162A sheetfed press fills a gap in the PLM product offering and is entirely complimentary to the digital printing provided by Optium which the firm acquired in the summer of 2003. While the Rapida 162A press provides an entry for PLM into the large format market it also provides additional capacity for the work already done on PLM’s 40-inch presses and allows the company to compete very effectively against the 40-inch 10- and 12-color perfecting presses that have entered the market during the past several years In September 2004, Johnson Printing & Packaging Corporation, a Minneapolis-based award-winning nationally-recognized commercial printing and packaging firm, installed a KBA Rapida 105 41-inch seven-color sheetfed press with inline spot UV coating capabilities. The new Rapida 105 seven-color press is providing the firm with more color, higher speeds, better color control, and inline UV spot coating for the high-end folding cartons, point-of-purchase displays, commercial printing, preloaded inserts, and carded packaging that the company produces. Tru Line Lithographing, Inc., a general commercial printer located in Sturtevant, Wisc., installed a KBA Rapida 105 41-inch four-color perfector sheetfed press in September 2004. Tru Line Lithographing is a member of The Garvey Group, a network of seven companies located in Wisconsin and Illinois. The company replaced three older presses (a two-color 40-inch, a two-color perfector, and a six-color 25-inch sheetfed press) with the new KBA Rapida 105 41-inch four-color perfector. The new Rapida press gives Tru Line the flexibility of producing two-over-two jobs or straight four-color work. Plus it gives them the ability to print on coated stock, something the company could not accomplish before. Packaging: A KBA 162a six-color 64” large format sheetfed press was installed at Annan & Bird Lithographers, Canada’s largest and most advanced large format printer headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario. The new press was delivered in December 2003 and began production in March 2004. While the firm plans to use the new press to produce poster and display work, the firm is utilizing the full UV interdeck system on the press to run paper, plastic, foil, and synthetic papers. Seydaco Packaging Corp., a manufacturer of quality folded cartons located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, installed a KBA Rapida 105 universal 41-inch six-color plus coater in May 2004. Citing a huge improvement in productivity and quality using the new KBA Rapida 105, the company has reduced make-ready times and changeover time from one job to the other. The KBA Rapida was booked solid with work all the way until the end of the year. Digital Offset: A KBA 74 Karat digital offset waterless press with inline aqueous coating was installed in May 2004 at Digital Ink, a New York City-based firm providing prepress, printing, and display graphics. The company needed a short-run solution that would fill the niche between its two-up DI and conventional 40-inch presses. The KBA 74 Karat is that solution! It helped the company open more doors than they ever expected. Since the KBA 74 Karat is able to produce jobs up to 20 pt cover weight material, Digital Ink is beginning to produce a variety of jobs using the heavier stock. These jobs include counter cards, packaging, heavy weight pocket folders and media kits. This is in addition to all the printed products on the regular stock weights, such as multi-page booklets, marketing materials, six-panel brochures, postcards, and ad agency SWOP-approved top sheets. Minors Printing, a full-service general commercial printing firm located in Boone, N.C., has installed a KBA 74 Karat digital offset waterless press, the first of its kind in the three-state region of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The new press with Gravuflow inking system and coater was installed in the fall of 2004. By installing the Karat, Minors Printing has increased its business and been able to branch out into short-run packaging work with predictable color for the larger packaging firms that are moving into its area. Color K Graphics, a full-service commercial and packaging printer based in Miami, purchased a 74 Karat digital offset press with coater at Drupa 2004 and installed the press in November 2004. The new 74 Karat allows Color K Graphics to move into new markets and be able to add services to its existing customer base. The digital offset press features an inline coater for high gloss and fast turnaround. The press also has the optional board package for running thicker substrates. This helps Color K expand into the short-run packaging market. The new digital offset press provides them with fast turnarounds, high quality, and flexibility. A 74 Karat digital offset press with coater was installed at Blanks Printing, a general commercial sheetfed printer located in Dallas, Texas. This was the first 74 Karat press in the state of Texas. The new press arrived in August 2004. Blanks counts many large nationwide retailers as its customers who, in addition to the longer run commercial work, have small, short-run, quick-turnaround jobs that are perfect work for the Karat. The Karat is allowing Blanks to generate more business and allow the firm to increase its volume on its larger presses because the company can service its customers completely under its own roof. For example, Blanks can print a sample annual report for a client on the Karat and, after approval, print the longer-run job on its sheetfed presses. The unique concept of the 74 Karat allows Blanks to print cost-efficient jobs of shorter run lengths, which can match the print quality and end result of its larger conventional presses because the company can calibrate the 74 Karat to its offset presses. A KBA 74 Karat Digital Offset Press was installed at Solzer Studios, a Solzer and Hail company. Solzer Studios is a leading graphic services company based in San Francisco. The firm took possession of the new press in June 2004. The 74 Karat’s sheet size of 20 x 29” was a major factor in Solzer’s decision-making as well as its one-man operation and its ability to print on a variety of substrates, such as onionskin, paper, board, plastics, lenticular, and vinyl. Solzer is also impressed with the Karat’s ability to print high-quality brilliant reproducible color over and over again KBA North America is a leading supplier of sheetfed offset and digital presses located in Williston, VT. It is a member of the KBA Group, a leader in the manufacture of sheetfed offset, digital offset, web offset, rotogravure directory, security, and newspaper presses.