KBA has sold a six-tower hybrid Comet press to Iraqi Media Network in Baghdad, where it will print national daily Al-Sabah.

The two-around, single-width press will have a thermal dryer to print eight the paper’s 48 full-colour pages heatset on coated stock. The configuration supports the full-colour heatset/coldset mix typical of Middle East titles.

The press will also print magazines on coated and improved paper, and work including flyers, inserts and books.

Rated at 75,000 cph, it will have a 578 mm cut-off and a web width variable from 630-870 mm, with 760 mm specified for the newspapers. Six reelstands will be connected to a Patras M reel-handling system. The towers will have automatic ink pumping and automatic colour-register control.

Automatic cut-off register controls, length and cross perforators and a quarterfold will ensure high-quality folding and enhance production flexibility, and there is to be one former in the superstructure above the KF 3 jaw folder. Addition of a second folder is scheduled at a later date.

KBA’s latest console technology includes the option of remote maintenance, and IMN is installing a Gämmerler stacker.

Pictured after sealing the deal in Würzburg: minister Mohammad Abdul Jabbar Al Shaboot, head and director of Iraqi Media Network, flanked by (from left) KBA sales manager Klaus Weber, executive vice-president for web press sales Christoph Müller, sales director Jochen Schwab and local KBA agency Alpha Print Graphics representative Ibrahim Raphael