22.03.12 - True to the chosen slogan “sprinting ahead”, the second-largest printing press manufacturer in the world, Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA), has planned a veritable innovation firework to light up this year's Drupa exhibition. A press conference on 20 March, at the opening of a special sneak preview for invited users at the company's sheetfed offset facility in Radebeul, announced many of the Drupa highlights for offset and digital print to a wider audience for the first time. Around 1,000 print professionals from Europe and overseas took advantage of the open house to experience the latest sheetfed offset generation during impressive live demonstrations. With the unveiling of its new, highly automated large-format press series Rapida 145, represented on this occasion by a six-colour model tailored for packaging and an eight-colour perfector press for commercial and magazine printing, KBA underlined its technical supremacy as market leader in this format class. An example for meaningful synergy effects between offset and digital print was given with the new inkjet printing system for the new Rapida 105 medium-format generation. The Drupa curtain was naturally not yet raised on everything the engineers have up their sleeves in Radebeul, but the exciting innovations placed on the table so far have definitely justified the Drupa slogan “sprinting ahead”. KBA has booked a 3,500m² (37,700ft²) stand in Düsseldorf (hall 16, stand 16C47) as the showcase for its many new and further developments for sheetfed, digital and web offset printers.
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Innovation in web offset, too: C16 and Commander CL
In commercial and newspaper web offset, too, KBA is able to present a raft of new developments addressing the latest market demands. The Commander CL, the newspaper press with module-based automation launched at IFRA Expo in Vienna in October 2011, for example, is to be shown for the first time with a compact printing unit featuring semi- and fully automatic plate changing and further innovations, alongside the very latest ErgoTronic console technology. In addition, a printing unit of the 16-page commercial press KBA C16 will be spotlighting the further optimisation for fast job changes with short and medium runs, together with its new low-maintenance quarterfold module and user-oriented console.
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