Drupa retrospect and news from the international print scene
Opening the latest issue of KBA Report transports you back five months to Koenig & Bauer's stand in hall 16 at Drupa.

The first pages in issue 41 of KBA's customer magazine are devoted to the group's successful performance in Düsseldorf and the many live demos of new sheetfed and web press products and advances for commercial, book, digital, packaging, promotional and newspaper printers. The headline on the title page, "Fresh wind from Düsseldorf", refers to the gradual convergence of analogue and digital printing technologies, the dwindling aversion between print and online media and the agreeably upbeat mood at the 15th Drupa.

In his editorial, KBA president and CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann described this year's Drupa as "the convergence show", going on to say that never before had the industry seen so many cross-vendor digital/offset hybrid systems, inline processes from pre-press to press and post-press, and market-oriented tie-ups between print and online media. His conclusion: "In the end, a greater willingness to collaborate is good for both users and vendors. Our industry can no longer afford needless friction losses."

Alongside the Drupa retrospect this 56-page issue of KBA Report covers the customary wide range of topics that include user and market reports from around the world, new product launches – among them the Varius 80 web offset press for flexible packaging – and trade features on current issues such as energy efficiency and advances in dryer technology. That is because the breadth of KBA's product palette is unique among suppliers to the print media industry. What is not widely known is that Stuttgart-based group subsidiary KBA-MetalPrint, a specialist in metal-decorating presses, also makes KBA CleanAir thermal emissions-purification systems for printing plants and other sectors. The current issue of KBA Report contains an interesting application at carton printer CD Cartondruck in Obersulm.