A flexible KBA Colora press for a Canadian publisher will provide a variety of single, double and triple-wide production options including UV print, and replace a 20-unit press.
Great West Newspapers - a group of 21 community newspapers as well as a commercial printer and partner of Glacier Ventures International - ordered the press for a new facility currently being constructed in St Albert, Alberta.
The move follows work with Florida-based Web Offset Services on options to meet quality and growth demands including production of the 'Edmonton Journal'. The existing 20-unit single-width press is currently at 97 per cent capacity.
The broad mix of newspaper and commercial work and extremely tight production windows has led to an unusual multiformat press concept. The Colora press will be configured with three towers, three reelstands and a unique KF5 folder to handle all three newspaper press production formats. This is accomplished with a fully adjustable and presettable triple former assembly mounted on a single level.
Coupled with this is an EAE semicommercial control system with embedded auxiliaries plus extensive presetting capabilities including a built-in, pre-programmed 'catalogue' of 950 different products.
Web Offset Service first worked with KBA and EAE to develop this system in 2003 for another KBA press destined for Independent Newspapers in Dover, Delaware, and the system was further refined in 2008 on a triple-width Commander 6/2 installation for Dansk AvisTryk in Copenhagen, Denmark. The system eliminates most of the inefficiencies of a typical double or triple-width press, as well as the pre-planning or job creation associated with adjustment and changeover. This shortens turnaround times while reducing waste - all with minimal operator intervention.
Among special attributes for the press are a larger KF5 folder with quarterfold, allowing higher production speeds and pagination capabilities, built-in stitching, a full triple-width slitting and turner-bar section for extensive pagination flexibility, QI register and cut-off controls, Technotrans inking and dampening systems, Baldwin blanket-washing devices, SMC reel-handling equipment and a Prime UV unit for up to 48 pages of glossy paper.
GWN president Duff Jamison says flexibility and efficiency are critical in today's printing and publishing environment: "We are in a relatively small commercial market which requires us to be capable of printing a wide variety of formats and on different substrates.
"Run lengths can be short as well, so the ability to turn jobs around quickly is very important," he says. "It may seem counterintuitive to do all this with a large press, but the truth is that software and technology make this press a great deal more effective than the single-wide we are leaving."
While high automation and the latest advances in production capability were necessary components of the project, it needed to be done in a safe and effective manner and that is where the KBA Colora "fitted very nicely", according to Web Offset Services president Sam Wagner. His approach to doing this kind of project is to be on the "leading edge but not the bleeding edge" of technology and in so doing prefers to use tried and true technologies that combine the best of what different parts of the printing industry has to offer in order to achieve the most efficient and productive system for a given application. Using a stable platform such as the Colora and KF5 folder to work from and adding proven technology is much preferred to "being someone's guinea pig or beta site," he says.
GWN and Web Offset Services are also working on putting together a state-of-the-art facility to match the press in terms of streamlining workflow and maximising efficiency. The combination of the Colora in the newest print production facility in North America will set the standard for newspaper production in 2012 and beyond.
Pictured: At the new GWN facility (from left) KBA sales director Winfried Schenker, GWN president Duff Jamison and plant manager Evan Jamison, Web Offset Services president Sam Wagner and KBA vice-president sales Jochen Schwab
Below: The press configuration with its special folder and former