Oct 5, 2006 -- KBA North America, a leading sheetfed offset press manufacturer based in Williston, Vt., is announcing that Aero Products Research (APR Industries), a leader in the manufacture and design of printed plastic advertising specialty products based in Los Angeles, purchased and installed a Genius 52 UV five-color waterless sheetfed press from KBA at PrintFest 2006 in May 2006. “We're all excited to be installing the Genius 52 UV press,” says Leonard and Joyce Wilstein, co-owners of APR. “It's like bringing a new baby into the world. Our six-, two-, and one-color presses are now taking a back seat to our new Genius 52 press. Our fabrication department (die cutting, blanking and shearing) and fulfillment department (affixing, packaging, silk screening, bar coding, thermal printing, magnetic striping, and holographs) are also excited by the new press and are taking great pride in the superior quality it achieves.” Alongside the trio of 40-inch presses and six laminating presses and supported by their new computer-to-plate prepress department, the Genius is now providing fast short and long runs with the highest quality graphics. Bevy of reasons to choose the Genius 52 UV “As an innovative company, we keep close track of new printing technology,” says Leonard Wilstein, president of Aero Products Research (APR Industries). “We were very interested in digital presses and looked at all the models available. But after close scrutiny, we chose the Genius 52 UV from KBA. Here's why: · The Genius is a dry offset press that allows us to print on plastic using a thicker ink layer · The Genius prints up to .032” stock at 8,000 sheets per hour; a huge benefit to our company · The Genius has a super fast makeready of under five minutes · At the push of a button, the Genius produces a finished sheet in perfect registration in less than 10 sheets · Rollers and blankets are auto-cleaned by the Genius · The Genius is incredibly cost efficient, giving us fast production with superior quality · State-of-the-art waterless printing without transferring the sheet through five colors makes this press truly a GENIUS.” Since the bulk of APR's jobs are custom-printed plastic cards, Wilstein has found that the Genius can produce up to six different jobs an hour. “The Genius can print 8,000 impressions per hour. However, we presently print at 7,000 sheets per hour and produce more than 150,000 cards per hour, including loading and unloading. Put another way, we can produce up to 42 short-run jobs in one shift on the Genius.” The colorful products being produced on the Genius 52 UV serve a world-wide market. These include hotel door hangers and access cards, tent signs, medical eye charts, wobblers, rulers, mouse pads, tags, and much more. Other custom products include special designs for customers such as Sony and the NBA through our extensive network of advertising agencies, and brokers for printing, promotional products, and document management. Specially-built room to showcase the new press To showcase the new press, APR specially-built a climate-controlled 20 x 35-foot room in its 30,000 sq ft plant for the Genius 52 UV to maintain a constant 70-degree temperature and 50% humidity. Not only is it the perfect environment for the Genius to operate, but its wall-to-wall windows provide visitors an excellent view of the press while it is running. In conjunction with the new press, APR has also installed a new computer-to-plate system. Before APR purchased the Genius, the firm was printing with a 40-inch six-color, a 40” two-color, and three other smaller sheetfed presses. “When we first began printing on plastic, we experienced problems with curing because the UV inks on the market were designed for paper,” says Wilstein. “Our in-house engineers, working with ink manufacturers, were successful in developing UV inks for use when printing on plastic. UV curing of plastic was even more challenging inasmuch as the heat made pizza out of the plastic sheets. We designed new curing equipment and solved that problem as well.” The Genius 52 UV is a one-operator press designed to print on a variety of stock including paper, board, plastic and lenticular. Using a central impression cylinder, the Genius 52 UV ensures accurate registration with full automation and immediate drying using its UV ink system. The Genius 52 UV can print 0.06 mm paper up to 32 pt. board stock as well as plastics and lenticular stock. With its ultra-short make-ready of less than 10 sheets – based on the Gravuflow keyless inking system - and make-ready times of less than 5 minutes, the Genius 52 UV press is the perfect tool for the short run commercial, packaging and advertising specialty markets.