March 11, 2004 -- KBA North America, a leading sheetfed offset press manufacturer, has installed a KBA 74 Karat Digital Offset Press with coater at Anderson Digital Services, a Carol Stream, Ill.-based digital print producer and prepress shop. The press was installed in 2003. “Rush jobs represent 80% of our business,” says Lee Rady, one of the founders of Anderson Digital. “We can complete these jobs very easily on the Karat with coater. We produce high quality work in quick turnaround because the coater dries the sheets quickly. We have no trouble printing short-run jobs of four colors on the Karat. If I need special colors to print a corporate color, I can easily order them from my ink supplier. The Karat is a very flexible press. We use it to print packaging work, point-of-purchase, brochures, catalogs, and advertising work.” Producing specialized packaging work The KBA 74 Karat is also helping Anderson Digital cater to the growing market of specialized packaging for CDs and videos. Many media enterprises have moved to Carol Stream, a suburb of Chicago, and Anderson Digital prints a sizable volume of cartonboard packaging for them on the Karat. The coater and the plastics option on the 20 x 29” 74 Karat were key components of the press. More than 90% of Anderson’s work entails coating. The press operates with inks and aqueous coatings specially formulated for waterless offset. The press also features a modified ink pumping system, special blankets, a new washer bar and cleaning agent, plus static eliminators at the feeder and delivery. This relatively modest conversion of the standard press version has substantially enhanced the Karat’s capabilities.Rady has also begun to consider printing on polypropylene as a possible substrate for printing, and have already carried out the first test runs. Four years of growth Anderson Digital Services was established in April 2000 by four colleagues and friends at a litho studio who decided to open their own company. Initially, they focused on pre-press, delivering films to ad agencies, printing plants and industrial enterprises. Within a year, the firm had installed a computer-to-plate platesetter and began supplying printing plates. Today the firm employs 11 and offers scanning, retouching, color correction, page assembly, large format film output, analog proofing, contract digital proofing, design production, web page development, both digital and conventional photography, digital file management, large format prints, and print services on the 74 Karat. In addition to the KBA 74 Karat Digital Offset Press, Anderson Digital has added a folding machine to produce finished products. Please see photos at: www.kba-print.de/vt/headlines/digital/2004-03-09/