KBA North America announces that Marshall & Bruce Printing Company, a specialist in general commercial printing and packaging and fulfillment services, has added a KBA Genius 52 20-inch press alongside its existing KBA Rapida 105 41-inch seven-color press. The Nashville, Tennessee firm is running many new applications with the Genius.
 
“We were quite impressed with the Genius’ ability to print excellent quality on an extremely wide variety of substrates across a broad caliper spectrum,” says Chip Smith, president of Marshall & Bruce. “We use the Genius in conjunction with our KBA Rapida 105 press where both will be required to run high-end commercial, point-of-purchase, and packaging work on a variety of substrates. We also plan to print projects for the gift card and horticultural markets on the Genius.”
 
The Genius 52 UV, which received the prestigious Printing Industries of America InterTech award in 2006, is the world’s first waterless UV sheetfed offset press. The maximum sheet size is 14 3/16” x 20”, and it can operate at 8,000 sph. The unique press features keyless inking, waterless technology, extended delivery, and integrated dryers. It is designed to print on a variety of paper and board from 80lb to 32pt, and plastics, including lenticular surfaces, PVC, styrene, polyethylene, static cling vinyl, low tack vinyl, and others. It features an automatic plate-changing device that guarantees short setup times, reliable reproducibility, and brilliant offset quality. The Genius 52 control console features a touch-screen display that can slide from one end of the press to the other for easy press operator access. The press prints in five colors with UV curing inks that rapidly and completely harden through an efficient integrated drying system, which allows further processing, such as laminating or punching, immediately afterward.
 
The installation of the KBA Genius will mark the smallest press ever installed at Marshall & Bruce. The firm had operated a 20 x 28-inch one-color press many years ago but the 14 x 20-inch Genius will be the first in this size format.
 
“Our decision to purchase the Genius included the need to move smaller work off of our KBA Rapida 105 and have the ability to print on different substrates,” says Smith. “The Genius will allow us to produce shorter run projects more efficiently and permit us to keep jobs in-house rather than send out to a digital print partner. Its ease-of-use, color fidelity, and very fast makereadies were all key elements in our decision to purchase the Genius. The Genius will help us to be more efficient and thus bring even more value to our demanding clients.”
 
Marshall & Bruce Printing Company was founded in 1865 by Andrew Marshall and James Bruce with the goal of rendering a “greater measure of service than was necessary on any given occasion to study, strive, and to advance in the interests of its clientele.” Today the family-owned firm is one of the most modern and efficient printing firms in the region. Its 55,000 sq ft facility houses its KBA Rapida 105 41-inch sheetfed press as well as the latest in prepress equipment, die-making and die-cutting, a complete bindery, and quality control program.