KBA North America, a global press manufacturer based in Williston, Vermont, and Dallas, Texas, announces that Accurate Box Company Inc., located in Paterson, New Jersey, has improved its automation and productivity with a new KBA Rapida 162 64-inch seven-color sheetfed printing press.  Accurate Box is a leading high-graphics corrugated box manufacturer specializing in custom full color litho-laminated packaging. The installation of the new press took place in late fall of 2008 with full production beginning in January 2009.
 
“Our niche is the production of exceptional high graphics corrugated packaging for nationally-recognized brands such as Kellogg’s and Pepsico,” says Lisa Hirsh, president and CEO of Accurate Box. “This type of packaging has become more brilliant and requires higher color reproduction due to the growth of the big box retailers like Costco and Sam’s Club. Our job is to produce the logos and graphics with the highest quality on a strong corrugated material that will withstand shipping, storage, and display, and entice customers to purchase the products.”
 
To keep up with demand and maintain its leadership position, Accurate Box chose to add a new, state-of-the-art KBA Rapida162 seven-color press to complement the existing KBA Rapida press. This new press offers expanded automation and productivity coupled with higher press speeds as well as the KBA Logotronic management system.  The Logotronic management system provides company-wide digital data exchange between management, production, purchasing, logistics, and general office departments.  In addition, the new technology provides the KBA Densitronic S closed-loop color management scanning densitometry system.
 
“We’ve only had the press a few months and we’re already seeing how much faster it comes up to color, its quicker make-ready times, and all of the new automation and technology,” says Hirsh. “While we spent a good amount of time analyzing other press manufacturers and their models, in the end we felt that our customers deserved the flexibility, consistency, and reliability of the high quality printing that our KBA presses deliver.”
 
Hirsh admits that another component of the purchasing decision was how to adapt to faster turnaround times demanded by their customers.   “In addition, our customers are ordering shorter run lengths and we’re seeing much more frequent copy changes to keep the copy fresh. Our new KBA Rapida press equipped with all of its automation is allowing us to cut our makeready times, quickly set up the press to print, and scan our jobs to ensure that color is exact. Further, the press has allowed us to increase capacity and we’ll be looking for new ways to reduce waste due to the efficiency on press.”
 
“Forming a close partnership with Accurate Box and providing them with a press that will satisfy their demanding customers is our ultimate goal,” says Ed Heffernan, KBA district sales manager. “We’re pleased that after an extensive search of different presses on the market, Accurate Box chose to remain with KBA and utilize our latest technology to keep them as leaders in their niche market.”