ON THE ROAD -- German Tour Opens Printers' Eyes Wide

RADEBEUL, GERMANY--Customer demands, technology developments and market pressures are leading printers to think about pressroom productivity and efficiency in new ways. Format and substrate flexibility--along with a continual drive for makeready gains--have become part of a more complicated formula for determining the right production platform.

In the sheetfed printing segment, two production alternatives that have been getting greater attention of late are long perfectors and large-format presses. Koenig & Bauer AG recently held an open house at its sheetfed headquarters to give some 300 participants an opportunity to compare examples of each platform. A select group of U.S. commercial printers and trade press editors made a trek to the event at the invitation of KBA North America.

Chosen as a basis for the comparison were a 10-color, 41? Rapida 105 perfector (five-over-five) press and a six-color, 56? Rapida 142 straight press. Jürgen Veil, marketing manager and print specialist at KBA Radebeul, stepped attendees through a detailed analysis of the impact adding each of these two presses would have on an "average" medium-sized sheetfed shop. Based on the set of parameters he defined, Veil says retooling a shop in this manner will generate press capacity reserves, while substantially reducing labor costs for a standard job mix.

For a head-to-head comparison of the two presses, Veil used the job chosen for the later press demos--a 32-page brochure with four-page cover in A4 format. In this case, he contends a 56? press is more cost-effective than a 40?, five-over-five perfector for producing run lengths of 20,000 copies or more. This cost advantage widens as the run length increases, the marketing manager adds.

Below the 20,000 copy threshold, the long perfector is more economical and its cost advantage widens as run lengths decrease, Veil says.

Going Large

According to KBA, one of the key messages it wanted attendees to take away from the open house is that large-format printing can be a significantly more cost-effective production platform, particularly for longer print runs or challenging substrates. This press category also gives users the opportunity to extend their range of services, in particular, by printing large-format displays or posters.

Medium-size perfectors are more competitive at producing a succession of smaller jobs with a limited number of pages, KBA contends. Both platforms are said to offer similar performance in terms of quality, makeready times, manning levels and maximum running speeds.

As a common starting point for the printing demonstrations, the open house also featured an overview of a new management information system, called technoPLAN, from Rogler Software, a company based in Switzerland. The system was used to plan and estimate the test job for both presses.

Job data was then passed from the management system to a Creo Prinergy workflow for use in prepping files to be output on a Creo Magnus VLF platesetter. The demonstration showed how a job can be quickly reformatted for production on a medium- or large-format press, including adapting the imposition pattern and changing plate sizes in the platesetter.

Bringing the hypothetical print shop to life, Torsten Uhlig of German printer Druckhaus Heidenreich, shared some of his company's real-world experience with installing a Rapida 142 and 10-color Rapida 105 perfector. Uhlig says the machines were installed to increase the shop's capacity.

Customer concerns about gloss were a key factor in the printer's decision to go with the large-format Rapida 142 press rather than adding a second 10-color perfector, the company exec reports. Demanding car manufacturers, in particular, had noticed a drop off in gloss from the front of sheets to the back in jobs produced on the perfector, he says. In addition, the company had the Rapida 142 configured for hybrid UV printing to meet increasing demand for coatings.

The company recently brought prepress in-house, so it was able to plan ahead for the larger format requirements. It did add a larger cutter to handle the sheet size.

Uhlig says the challenges in handling larger sheets should not be underestimated. If sheets are not coated, the amount of spray powder that has to be used can cause problems and ripples can develop in loads of sheets on a pallet. Everything on the press is heavier and bigger, he adds, which means two people are required for many operations--such as plate and blanket changes. Waste also becomes a bigger issue.

On the other hand, the 10-color perfector has more mechanical parts that can lead to issues with wear, cleaning and maintenance, Uhlig says. "I see a good future for large-format presses."

In a special presentation for the U.S. printers, Ralf Sammeck, president and CEO of KBA North America, pointed out that the parent company is the oldest press manufacturer in the world and is still family owned. The first "KBA" press was manufactured in 1814, even though the company wasn't officially founded until 1817.

According to Sammeck, the sheetfed operation grew by 42 percent in 2004. "There was huge growth in Rapida 105 (41?) sales, but also a trend toward larger formats," he says. "Printers with 41? presses are adding larger presses to differentiate their services and become more productive."

Quality Gets a Boost

At the time of the open house, the company reported it had sold seven 81? Rapida 205 sheetfed presses to printers in the United States. Jens Junker, vice president of sales at KBA Radebeul, points out that the manufacturer has a policy of running a new press model in Germany for 12 to 18 months before shipping any machines to the U.S. in order to have time to work the inevitable bugs out of a new design.

In today's competitive market, printers need to be able to differentiate their services with KBA presses, Junker says. He points out that its 41? machines can be ordered with up to 16 units, in any configuration of printing units and coaters. Offering this range is driven by customer requests, not a desire to have something new to sell, since all presses are built for a specific customer, the company exec adds.

The Radebeul operation employs more than 2,100 people. Sammeck says it has a very dedicated and proud workforce, since the unemployment rate in this former East German region is still running about 18 percent.

In other news, KBA reports it is going to be introducing its own line of dryers--IR and UV--for Rapida sheetfed presses, starting with the 41? model. The dryers should have a U.S. debut in 2006. KBA says it will build its own units based on designs by Air Motion Systems.

Most of the U.S. printers who made the trip were still undecided about the future of large-format presses--in terms of their companies and the industry as a whole--when they arrived in Germany. Also, a number of them represented companies that didn't currently have any KBA presses. At the end of the day, they generally seemed to have positive reactions to what was said and expressed interest in learning still more.