Rapida sheetfed offset technology for state and university printers

• Four successful tenders
• Applications in commercial and securities printing
• Optimum proximity to the users

A Rapida 106 is in production at Gouvernement Printing Press in Riyadh. Jörg Winkler, service director for Koenig & Bauer Sheetfed, Yousef Al Khazaly, printing manager at Gouvernement Printing Press, Sven Strzelczyk, sales director for Koenig & Bauer Sheetfed, and Abdalah Alhareri, general manager of Al-Kaharafi (left to right), met at the new high-end press to celebrate successful commissioning.

Industrial packaging printers in Saudi Arabia operate sheetfed offset presses from Koenig & Bauer, among them Al Obeikan Folding Carton, Noor Carton for Packaging and Al Jawad Printing Press. Meanwhile, Rapida presses have also been strengthening their foothold among commercial users, and here in particular in government-run printing houses. Koenig & Bauer was recently successful with four tenders in relatively quick succession, and can now point to four new customers for its modern technology.

An order for two new presses was placed by Gouvernement Printing Press in Riyadh. The company operates a Rapida 106 with six printing units, a coater and perfecting after the second unit. Alongside stands a six-colour Rapida 76 with coater and provisions for UV printing. Both presses print a variety of documents on paper and plastic substrates, for example passports, ID cards, driving licences or residence permits. Accordingly, the long list of features also includes corresponding facilities for rainbow printing. The high-end presses for half and medium formats are both engineered for production speeds up to 18,000 sheets per hour.

King Abdulaziz University Printing Press in Jeddah has been using a Rapida 105 since last year. The four-colour press prints books and magazines for the university and also incorporates board-handling equipment to cope with substrates up to 1.2 mm. That provides for maximum flexibility in production.

Further Rapida 105 users are Um Al Qura University Printing Press in Mecca and the Islamic University in Medina. Both presses are configured with four printing units, coater and extended delivery. The main products are likewise university magazines and books.

One important reason for the positive acceptance of press technologies from Koenig & Bauer is the first-class and absolutely transparent advice given by regional sales partner Al-Kharafi. The close cooperation with the factories in Germany is another key factor, as it permits the fast realisation of tailored solutions in response to special customer wishes. Furthermore, local service units have been created to cover all the industrial centres of this enormous country and to ensure optimum proximity to the users.

Through such successes on the Arab market, and elsewhere, the oldest printing press manufacturer in the world has again demonstrated that forward-looking developments to the benefit of users remain possible, even in times of shrinking markets and reduced margins.