International PaperBox Awaits New Koenig & Bauer Rapida 106 UV Press

(Left to right) Kay and Wade Holbrook, owners of International PaperBox, visited Koenig & Bauer’s German factory to see their new Rapida 106 seven-color press being built.

At International PaperBox, the accent is firmly on quality and customization. Serving a variety of businesses in the Utah and Mountain West vicinity, this nearly 20-year-old folding carton packaging printer has gained a committed customer base that seek unique and difficult jobs incorporating printing, folding, and gluing applications. To continue to provide high quality service and quality, the firm decided to boost its production and capacity with a new Koenig & Bauer Rapida 106 seven-color UV press.

“We’re stepping up our game,” says International PaperBox CEO Wade Holbrook, who owns the 50-employee business along with his wife Kay. “There’s no comparison between our current 15-year-old 40-inch press and our new Rapida 106 press in terms of speed and automation. Our customers and our firm will be benefiting from its efficiency, giving us at least 50% more capacity if not more. Its digital quality control features will be new to our press crew, providing an improved focus on production excellence.”

Working with his Koenig & Bauer sales representative, Holbrook specifically chose features that would enhance his firm’s reputation for quality and customization. A vital new feature is the Koenig & Bauer QualiTronic PDFCheck, which provides International PaperBox with sheet inspection and comparison of the printed sheet with a PDF. Its operators will be alerted to differences to the PDF and then once approved it switches over to inspection to inspect every sheet over the run length. Due to its variety of packaging work, the firm added the board package to enhance substrate versatility and board thicknesses with a substrate range up to 48pt. The Rapida 106 is specified as a raised press to run larger loads to keep up with the higher speeds and multiple pile changes.

The new Rapida 106 brings automation and ultra-fresh features that didn’t exist more than a decade ago. Press crews at International PaperBox will gain ink density measurement and control utilizing the Rapida’s QualiTronic ColorControl feature. Its camera system takes automatic measurements of every sheet via optical density on the sheet’s color bar, which serve as a basis for inline control of the ink key settings. Armed with a custom Koenig & Bauer VariDRY UV system, the Rapida press operators will see jobs quickly print and dry as they move to postpress finishing. Holbrook is pleased that his 21-year-old lead pressman can’t wait to get his hands on the new Rapida with all of its high-tech automation and will go to Germany for additional training.

To make this critical decision after comparing Koenig & Bauer against three other press manufacturers, Holbrook pointed to a number of reasons for his decision. “The Rapida is the industry’s most robust well-built press that will ensure the highest quality print for many years to come,” he says. “But it was the professionalism and integrity that the representatives from Koenig & Bauer showed us that made the difference. During the entire sales process, they took the time to understand our business and asked me questions. They educated me on all of the different features on the press and went over every option available to me. This is a big step for us and it displayed how we will be treated when we have questions or need service. I feel confident that I have the entire Koenig & Bauer team on my side.”

Once the press is delivered and operating at the 70,000-sq -ft facility outside of Salt Lake City, it will become the firm’s flagship, says Holbrook. “We spent a lot of time considering all of the manufacturers and models available to us and, in the end, we determined that the Rapida was the best press on the market,” he adds.

Source: Koenig & Bauer

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