6,000th Rapida printing unit in large-format goes to Scotland

The management of Scottish printers Bell & Bain accepted its third Rapida 142 press at Koenig & Bauer's (KBA) plant in Radebeul on 30 November. This press is something special as this eight-colour four-over-four perfecting press is the last Rapida 142 in this globally successful series to go to packaging, commercial and book printers. The new Rapida 145, its highly-automated successor, was unveiled at Drupa 2012. With up to 17,000 sph and minimal makeready times the new press redefines performance parameters in large-format.

Spectacular large sheetfed offset presses from Saxony
The Rapida 142 for Bell & Bain, a loyal KBA customer, has a further special feature. It contains the 6,000th printing unit to be built into a large-format Rapida 130-162a generation since 1995. As the recognised market leader in large format, KBA Radebeul has delivered over 1,000 large Rapidas to printing companies all over the world in the past 17 years. Including extremely long presses, such as a 40m (131ft) long Rapida 142 with eight printing units, two coaters, three dryers and a triple extended delivery for complex inline finishing, which went live at Hub Folding Box in the USA in 2007. This and other spectacular presses delivered to prominent printing companies in many countries underscores the globally unique competence of the sheetfed offset professionals from Saxony in the larger format classes.

Glasgow-based printers Bell & Bain mainly produce academic books and magazines. The company was founded in 1831 and has become a prominent producer of books. At Drupa this year in May the company's management ordered a Rapida 142. At the contract signing managing director Ian Walker said: "The KBA presses we have been working with since 2005 have contributed a great deal to the sustained growth and success of our company. We were looking for a press which would allow us to continue this trend." Bell & Bain are one of the few book printers who were able to withstand tough competition over the past years. Today the printing house employs 80 employees and has a yearly turnover of £8.5m (approx. €10.5m).

Even though the Rapida 142 comes from a previous series, it has many of the features found in its successors, such as fully-automatic plate changing, CleanTronic Synchro for simultaneous washing of inking rollers, blankets and impression cylinders as well as a perfecting delivery for increased speed and performance. In addition the press features DensiTronic Professional and QualiTronic Color Control check print quality inline on both sides of the sheet.