(September 04, 2008) As at Drupa in May, KBA’s focus at IfraExpo in Amsterdam will be on its innovative Competence platform comprising the ultra-compact Cortina (waterless) and Commander CT (conventional) newspaper offset presses, whose extensive automation, flexibility, cost efficiency and user-friendliness are the way of the future.

Alongside the most advanced newspaper press technology on the market and the many benefits it offers users and operators, the KBA stand (8-530, Parkhal) will also be promoting some conventional and not-so-conventional products for coldset and heatset production.

At the end of August there were 19 compact press lines totalling 99 towers on KBA’s reference list: 15 Cortina (75 towers) and 4 Commander CT (24 towers). Along with a number of 4/2 installations they include four 6/2 versions and the first 4/1 version. The first triple-wide Cortina came on stream shortly before IfraExpo at Nordsee-Zeitung in Bremerhaven, while a multi-unit Commander CT 6/2 will ship early next year to the Daily News in New York. In the summer Gulf News in Dubai placed KBA’s first order from outside Europe for a multi-unit Cortina with a bank of dryers for hybrid coldset/heatset production.

Alongside automatic plate changing, dedicated cylinder drives and some unique features that include rollers locks and cylinder bearings, the Cortina and Commander CT’s reduced headroom – a four-high tower is just over 4m (13ft) high – offer some decisive benefits compared to traditional web presses. Added to which they are much more convenient to operate (lifts instead of stairs) and also more cost efficient (smaller capital investment in plant and buildings, lower energy consumption, less maintenance).