KBA North America

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the first mechanically printed newspaper. It was on Nov. 29, 1814, that a new steam-powered double-cylinder press was used for the first time to print The Times in London. The press was invented by Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Bauer, two pioneers who founded the world’s first printing press factory, Schnellpressenfabrik Koenig & Bauer, in Germany.

KBA North America is adding new technicians, a new apprentice program, and investing in a new training program to improve its overall customer satisfaction. "It is imperative that we continue to be the easiest company to do business with to immediately respond to our customers’ needs," said Tim McKeon, vice president of service and operations for KBA North America.

Winston Packaging in Winston-Salem, NC, has broken a world record in job production. On August 11, 2014, the company reached average speeds of 18,964 iph on 127,625 sheets in less than seven hours on its 41", six-color KBA Rapida 106.

RESTON, VA—It would have been hard for even the most tenacious of travelers to not be impacted by the significant challenges that the fire at the FAA facility in Aurora, IL, caused for people attending GRAPH EXPO 14 and co-located CPP EXPO last month. But despite 4,251 flight cancellations and over 12,000 significant delays at Chicago's two major airports during the show, attendees found a way to get to the show.

A fire at the FAA facility in Aurora, IL, imparted significant challenges to those flying into Chicago for GRAPH EXPO 14. But despite 4,251 flight cancellations and over 12,000 significant delays at Chicago's two major airports, orders and optimism were up from last year's show.

SUSSEX, WI—Tempt In-Store Productions, a Quad/Graphics company, announced it has completed the installation of its newest very-large-format press, a KBA Rapida 205, which is targeted for printing POP signage, posters, displays and graphics of all kinds up to 81x59˝ in size on a wide range of paper and plastic substrates.

In a flurry of announcements, KBA North America lit up GRAPH EXPO 14 in Chicago, held September 28-October 1. Strong sheetfed sales were reported, along with a new inkjet corrugated packaging press collaboration with HP. In addition, KBA North America introduced the RotaJET L-Series modular inkjet press and announced an agreement with Tensor International, whereby KBA will actively promote Tensor’s single-width printing solutions.

The following is a sampling of some new wide-format, cutsheet and continuous-feed digital presses that were highlighted or on the show floor at GRAPH EXPO 14 in Chicago.

Commercial printing industry supplier company and personnel news from Printing Impressions’ October 2014 edition, including Esko, Valco Melton, Gluing Machinery & Systems, Ricoh, Xanté, RM Machinery, DiMS! organizing print, Print Media Advisors, RBP Chemical Technology, NELA-USA, KBA North America and Tensor International.

Due to a shrinking global market volume for web offset presses, KBA is forced to reduce payroll at its subsidiaries Albert-Frankenthal and KBA-FT Engineering to 164. Both firms are located in Frankenthal, Germany.