New KBA Rapida 164 64-inch six-color 10-unit press with double coaters and UV capabilities struts its stuff

KBA North America partnered with its customer Meredith-Webb Printing Company to sponsor a tour and open house on July 24 at its facility in Burlington, NC in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association of Independent Corrugated Converters (AICC) from the Southeast. Nearly 100 members from AICC Region 5, including notable corrugated and folding carton companies from North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida attended the successful event and learned about the firm’s capabilities on its newly-launched KBA Rapida 164 64-inch six-color 10-unit press with double coaters, UV capabilities, and the new KBA ErgoTronic console. The new press, its third from KBA in three years, was delivered to Meredith-Webb’s facility in January 2014.

“We’re very proud of our new KBA Rapida 164 64-inch six-color 10-unit press with double coaters, UV capabilities, and the new KBA ErgoTronic console,” says Kelly Webb, executive vice president at Meredith-Webb. “Since itsinstallation in January 2014, it has been a tremendous asset to our company. This newly-launched large format press from KBA is providing us with an unprecedented level of speed and turnaround. In an on-demand world where digital and inkjet capabilities drive shorter and shorter turnarounds, this new press, coupled with two additional 64” presses, is giving us additional capacity and backup. Plus, the new KBA Rapida 164 with its double coating embellishments and special UV capabilities is allowing us to grow our specialty printing and give our customers much more flexibility. This open house, our first, provides an exciting opportunity for us to showcase our state-of-the-art facility as well as our investment in advanced technology. Our new KBA Rapida 164 joins our Rapida162a 64-inch seven-color press with coater and UV capabilities that was delivered the first quarter of 2013 and our KBA Rapida 106 41-inch 10-unit UV press, which was installed in 2010. The move to KBA has been a huge success.”

A highlight of the event was the rapid-fire turnaround of a print job using a photo of the AICC group as they arrived at Meredith-Webb’s facility. In less than 90 minutes, Meredith-Webb’s prepress and press operators had created plates and printed 64-inch posters of the group while they toured the printer’s facility. In order to show off all of Meredith-Webb’s capabilities, the poster included many special features such as metallic gold, special effect varnish, gloss UV, and raised UV. The finished piece was showcased in front of the Rapida 164. “Our goal is to have the fastest turnaround possible,” explained Kelly Webb to the audience. Appreciative visitors would surely agree that Meredith-Webb has shown within a couple of hours that they have the technology and capabilities to achieve that goal.

The open house began with the welcoming chant of “We Will Rock You” from the popular song recorded by Queen. Visitors gathered in front of the operating KBA Rapida 164 and listened to Walter Chmura, KBA vice president, presenting some of the most advanced technological features on the press. To make the tour more personalized, the AICC group was split into two. One group went with Kelly Ward, Meredith-Webb production manager, for a tour of the entire manufacturing plant. The other group attended a presentation by a specialist from Kodak where they learned about new prepress software that was newly-implemented at Meredith-Webb to better and more quickly serve its customers’ needs. After each group finished their tour and presentation, they switched.

Established in 1952 by George Webb, Meredith-Webb Printing continues to grow in its sprawling 140,000 sq ft headquarters along Main Street in Burlington, NC. Led by brothers Travers and Kelly, sons of the founder, the 100+ employee firm has proudly earned the chain-of-custody certifications endorsed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest CertificationSchemes (PEFC) as part of the company’s commitment to achieve its environmental initiatives. Meredith-Webb also earned the G7 Master qualification, the “seal of approval” from the IDEAlliance as a G7 Master Printer, which proves that the firm possesses the technology and tools to consistently deliver the highest quality printing in the world, based on the most stringent international standards.