KBA North America, a leading supplier of sheetfed offset and digital presses based in Williston, VT, greeted executives from Quatro Card Technology, a newly-formed plastic card manufacturer based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, at the Graphics Canada trade show in early November. Quatro Card Technology installed the very first KBA Genius 52 UV press in Canada. The company is serving customers in North America who seek quick turnaround, high quality plastic card production under one roof. Competitive advantage with Genius 52UV “After seeing the Genius 52 UV in action in Florida, Quatro Card Technology could see that the press had the fine registration, high quality, ease-of-use, quick changeover, and low waste that they were seeking,” says Rob McGillis, KBA Canadian district sales manager. “The new press has completely exceeded their expectations! By installing the KBA Genius 52 UV, Quatro Card Technology gained a competitive advantage by offering a shorter cycle time to market. This is because the Genius 52 UV allows them to run a thicker card stock on press instead of using the older method of having to take four pieces of paper and laminate them together. Even though plastic card production still involves many steps, such as adding magnetic strips, personalization, and die-cutting, Quatro has been able to significantly reduce its production cycle. Its competitors offer a four to six week turnaround; Quatro is able to offer a two to three week cycle time due to the Genius 52 UV.” The Genius 52 UV is a 20-inch format press designed for the short-run color market. It can produce the highest print quality with only two transfer points in less than five minutes. The Genius 52 features one-operator ability, ultra short make ready times of less than 5 minutes from approved-sheet to approved-sheet, a unique ability to print on a wide variety of stock up to 32 pt, with high quality print results and the low startup waste of less than 10 sheets. One central impression cylinder = perfect registration “In the plastic card manufacturing business, registration is very critical,” says McGillis. “The KBA Genius 52 UV press is perfectly-suited for this work because it only uses one central cylinder for printing. The Genius 52 UV pulls the sheet through the press to the end without any slipping. Other presses use multiple cylinders that can allow slippage and imperfect registration.” The KBA Genius 52 UV press can produce 8,000 sheets per hour that allows high volume card production and has the ability to immediately dry the sheets due to the use of UV inks. Its waterless printing feature allows tight color tolerance. It is also an excellent lenticular solution.