“We had a choice between KBA and a different manufacturer to upgrade our control system on our KBA Comet web offset press,” says Fred Masenheimer, publisher of the Times News in Lehighton. “After a careful evaluation of the pros and cons of the two quotes we secured to do the upgrade, we awarded the project to KBA. While the original press came with a non-KBA control system from the other manufacturer, we decided to eliminate the interdependency of two companies to solve future press problems and put that responsibility in the hands of a single vendor and that was KBA. We feel that KBA had the knowledge, resources, and skilled technicians to update our press and its systems.”

The contract calls for KBA to replace and improve upon the press’ computers and software as well as make other enhancements to the press. Masenheimer says that these new additions will allow for increased capabilities, advanced improvements, and permit the company to handle new projects with even greater efficiency.

“We run a 24/ 7 printing operation to handle our own daily newspaper, our eight weekly newspapers and a full schedule of commercial printing which includes another daily newspaper,” he says. “KBA gave us the most confidence they would be able to do the upgrade with the least amount of interruption to our busy printing schedule and because of the extensive knowledge of their factory-trained personnel.”

“The expansion of our service portfolio has gained in importance as the demand for service has increased,” says Stefan Prohaska, director of customer service at KBA North America. “Service sales with retrofits, repairs, upgrades, relocations, consulting, and training are rising continually. Long-term service and maintenance contracts are on the rise. Our KBA team is skilled at being able to audit, analyze, and recommend programs to our customers and even non-customers to increase output and quality. Newspaper publishers depend upon asset condition and reliability for newspaper production and on time product delivery. The web offset retrofit service’s goal is to provide newspapers with reliable manufacturing and successful production on their web offset presses and to keep the technology running smoothly.”

(http://www.kba.com)