KBA North America, a leading sheetfed offset press manufacturer based in Williston, Vt., is announcing that Pacific Southwest Container, the West Coast’s premier provider of packaging solutions, is adding yet another KBA sheetfed press this fall, bringing to five in total installed at the facility in Modesto, California. “We are the West Coast’s premier provider of packaging solutions producing a broad array of containers and point-of-purchase displays for the consumer, electrical, food, and wine markets that are reflective of the California economy,” says Darin Jones, senior vice president of PSC. “We’ve been growing consistently for the past five years, posting a 17% growth rate last year with record sales of $104 million, and 19% growth this year up to this point. Our KBA presses are important to our growth because speed-to-market is the primary confidence that our customers entrust to us. In addition, we are being asked to produce more vibrant, more colorful, more intricate designs on our packages with complex coatings. Over the years, we have found that KBA presses are the best engineered in their class and give us the tools and automation to achieve our success.” To date, the firm has four KBA Rapida sheetfed presses: - KBA Rapida 162A 64-inch six-color sheetfed UV interdeck printing press, plus tower coater with anilox roll metering - KBA Rapida 130A 50-inch seven-color sheetfed printing press, plus tower coater - KBA Rapida 162A 64-inch six-color sheetfed UV interdeck printing press with oversized cylinders - KBA Rapida 105 41" nine-color sheetfed UV interdeck printing press, plus tower coater. The first printing unit is flexographic followed by a curing station. This fall, PSC will install another KBA Rapida 162A 64-inch six-color sheetfed press in Modesto for additional capacity. Large-format presses pump out food, wine, and beverage cartons The bulk of PSC’s work is produced on the two KBA 64-inch sheetfed presses, according to Blair Bergman, PSC team leader for the sheetfed press department. This work includes packaging for the food, wine, and beverage industries. The KBA Rapida 105 41-inch sheetfed press is used primarily for high-end folding cartons, which may call for silver, metallic, and other special effects put through the flexo unit, cured, and printed on the offset units all inline. Two presses, the Rapida 105 and one 64-inch sheetfed press, are equipped with KBA Logotronic management and KBA Densitronic S systems, as will the new KBA press being installed this fall. “The KBA systems are absolutely instrumental in allowing us to produce higher quality color work and keep track of our jobs,” says Bergman. “These systems are linked to our CTP system that provides presets and fountain key information, constantly updates our processes, and maintains our color consistency. A good portion of our work is reprints, in which the customer approves the job and when they run out of boxes, they ask for reprints. We’re able to quickly and efficiently produce reprints because all of the settings are maintained in our system and the press operators can easily bring the press back up to color with the push of a button.” Newest printing innovation Recently, PSC introduced a brilliant new innovation in the world of printing: Meta-chrome and Meta-pearl. Meta-tech printing is a new technology that produces foil-like effects using specially formulated inks, resulting in an overall metallic appearance. PSC can integrate meta-tech qualities in various concentrations with four-color process or match colors to create a variety of effects. “We’re gradually gaining more and more customers who are using Meta-chrome and Meta-pearl,” says Brian Wecht, PSC’s prepress team leader. “Not every project requires this type of look, but we’re finding that it is being used readily on video game and software packaging. It’s easy, cost effective, and more flexible than foil stamping; Meta-tech can simulate the metallic qualities of foils simply by laying ink on paper. It is being used to create a whole new dimension for printed images for subjects that are metallic, like automobiles or jewelry, or for reproducing black and white photography with a liquid silver effect.” UV provides durability, flexibility, and high-end printing Another growth area for PSC has been UV printing. Three of its KBA presses are equipped with UV dryers. For the last seven years, the use of UV at PSC has become a big market, according to Bergman. UV coating gives packages the durability needed to sustain time on store shelves but it also provides the ability to print on different substrates and for higher-end packaging, all of which is a necessity at PSC. “Our KBA presses are running either 24/7 or 24/6,” says Bergman. “When we ordered the newest KBA press to be delivered this fall, we all wondered why. But by the time the press gets here, it too will be filled to capacity.” Founded in Modesto, California in 1973, Pacific Southwest Container (PSC) has grown from a small family-owned business to the West Coast's premier provider of packaging solutions. With 500,000 square feet of building space in Modesto, and another 215,000 square feet at its satellite operation in Visalia, California, PSC’s unique ability to provide a comprehensive array of services, all in-house - from planning and design, to manufacturing and delivery - allows the firm to provide its customers with the most creative and cost-effective solutions to meet their packaging needs.