CPI, the French book printer which recently signed up to buy the HP inkjet web press it has been trialling, has put together an innovative offset press based on KBA’s compact newspaper technology. Its specially modified Commander CT press will have an infra-red dryer, an imprinter and a book folder to deliver virtually non-stop production. Group president Pierre-François Catté says the press will go live early next year at Brodard & Taupin in La Flêche, 250 km southwest of Paris. The group also has plants in the Netherlands, the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic. Custom-configured for paperbacks, the Commander CT will have one Pastomat CL reelstand with Patras A automated reel logistics. It will have a maximum web width of 1480 mm and a maximum rated output of 35,000 sections per hour in both straight and collect mode. The maximum page count in a wide range of common formats represents a radical innovation over the present options. The low-height printing tower will have four print couples with an imprinting capability for flying job changes in 1/1 production. Plates for the next job can be mounted while the first is still being printed, and other features include blanket washing, automatic colour and cut-off register controls and other automation. In response to an emerging demand for books – particularly thick books – that lie flat more easily when open, the new press will support long-grain production (with paper fibres parallel to the spine). Capacity of the infra-red dryer can be adjusted to production specifics such as a narrower web, and superstructure adapted from publication gravure, turns ribbons 90° over individual bars before entering the KBA book folder, where they are stitched via the quarterfold (chopper fold) to create two-up copies. • CPI is to buy the HP T300 inkjet web press it has been trialling since November at its Firmin-Didot subsidiary, along with a sheetfed HP Indigo 7000 digital press for covers. The press has a 762 mm web width – the widest in the industry – and prints at 122 metres/minute. In November, it produced a first mass-market paperback printed entirely with digital presses, a 2000-copy run of Nancy Farmer’s “Au Pays des Pommes d’Argent”. Other users oif the T300 include O’Neil Data Systems, Consolidated Graphics and Courier Corp in North America, Pioltello in Italy, and Communisis in the UK.