KBA North America

Commercial printing industry supplier company and personnel news from Printing Impressions’ August 2011 edition

PITTSBURGH—Printing Industries of America (PIA) has announced the recipients of its 2011 InterTech Technology Awards. The technologies receiving this recognition have been judged as truly innovative and are expected to have a major impact on the graphic communications industry.

Entries in Printing Industries of America’s 2011 InterTech Technology Award program demonstrated great strides in technology for packaging software, inkjet printing, workflow automation, offset press efficiency, UV curing and variable-data printing. Eight innovative technologies were selected to receive the award.

Pointsmith, an at-store point-of-purchase marketing management company, is increasing its capacity with a new 41" KBA Rapida 106 six-color press with full UV capabilities. This will expand its signage capabilities to now include offset, screen and digital formats.

Koenig & Bauer AG’s preliminary figures to June 1, 2011, reveal a leap of 21 percent in new orders to around €600 million and 27 percent in sales to €420+ million. However, demand for web presses remains well below pre-crisis levels.

KBA North America, a global press manufacturer based in Dallas, Texas, proudly announces that Koenig & Bauer AG, its parent company, is ranked 27th among the top 50 in the annual update of The Patent Board’s Patent Scorecard for manufacturers of heavy industrial equipment in 2011.

Cold foil machines from Graphic Art System will now be able to be retrofit on existing KBA presses and included with new press installations. Eco-Eagle has the ability to run unlimited multiple narrow webs of the same size or different sizes, or one large web depending on the job.

Press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer AG reported order intake climbed 37.4 percent to €432.1m (2010: €314.4m), with brisk demand for niche products driving up the volume of contracts awarded for KBA’s web and special presses by 42.8 percent to €290.6m.

Schiefelbein has been selected as the new KBA sheetfed district sales manager covering the Midwest territory of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. He has 24 years of experience in the graphic arts industry beginning as a project engineer for a large printing company.

Lithocraft Co., a high-quality commercial sheetfed printer, is expanding into new markets with the installation of a new KBA Rapida 106 eight-color UV press. “Our customers expressed an interest in having us expand our capabilities into the UV market with added color capabilities and environmentally-friendly processes,” says Robert Navarro, vice president of operations.