May 6, 2002 -- To address a demand from the short-run colour market for faster finishing, at Ipex 2002 KBA exhibited a 74 Karat DI offset press with inline coater. The dramatic reduction in drying time enables a perfecting pass to be run as soon as imaging is complete or, with the relevant imposition, instantly if the same forme is used, eg for four-page flyers. One of the 74 Karat’s big advantages is that it prints the sheets on the underside, so the pile only needs to be rotated 180° horizontally, not turned over. The coated sheets are dried by an IR/hot-air dryer located directly above the delivery, and can usually be trimmed after just 60 minutes. The dryer also dramatically cuts the time delay to finishing, eg folding, from 24 to around 3 hours, depending on the type of job printed. So more rush jobs can be printed in a day. For technical reasons a coater cannot be fitted in existing press lines.