Even before Drupa opened its doors a number of suppliers, educational establishments and other organisations - among them the VDMA (German Machinery and Plant Manufacturers' Association) and German trade magazine Deutscher Drucker - booked individual guided tours of the KBA stand.

The principal focus of the tours varies according to visitors' interests, with three basic choices. The first, naturally enough, is offset print production, more specifically on the Rapidas in all formats, and includes a briefing on performance parameters, job-changing times and automation. The second tour centres on green printing, with participants receiving a compact overview in the Technology Lounge of the various drying and curing systems offered with KBA presses, which range from conventional to HR/LED UV and energy-saving VariDry^Blue dryers. Other topics include quality control, waste and emissions reduction, consumables and climate-neutral print production. The third tour concentrates on packaging in all its diversity. This is where KBA-MePrint's two waterless, keyless offset presses - the small-format sheetfed Genius 52UV, with its ability to print on film, plastic and other sensitive substrates, and the new variable-format web-fed Varius 80 - really come into their own. Both presses can be made ready fast and deliver a superb print quality with a low level of start-up waste. Other attractions for packaging printers are the Rapida 105 with inkjet printing unit for brand protection and the highly automated Rapida 145, the biggest litho press at Drupa 2012.

There are up to six tours a day, each with an average of 15 participants. They are organised by Anne-Kathrin Gerlach from the sheetfed offset marketing department, who also acts as a highly competent guide. Her enthusiasm for the many innovations exhibited on the KBA stand is so infectious that a lot of participants return alone for more detailed information on the topic or topics that most interest them.