Not the longest in KBA’s compact press format, a new Commander CT for ‘Der neue Tag’ in Weiden, Northern Bavaria, will however be the widest in Europe. The €25 million investment follows the example of the New York ‘Daily News’ and Canadian print group Transcontinental… and brings KBA's sales of the compact conventional-technology design to 72 towers (33 triple-width and 39 double-width). The company says negotiations on further projects are also approaching conclusion. The 48-page installation of two 6/2 towers goes into a new print centre in Weiden-West in mid-2011, and will gradually take over production from a KBA Express dating from 1995. Owned by four familes, the media house publishes the largest daily newspaper in the region, plus regional titles and local editions with a daily circulation of about 84,000 copies, and has a staff of more than 400. The 90,000 cph Commander CT is in a substructure configuration, and will have a cylinder circumference of 910 mm and maximum web width of 1890 mm. Towers have fully automatic plate changers, automatic roller locks, NipTronic cylinder bearings, fan-out compensation, automatic colour register control, blanket washing and central ink supplies. Two Pastomat CL reelstands are loaded automatically via the Patras A reel-handling system with integrated stripping station and daily store. Other features include two double turner decks, a folder superstructure with three formers, a KBA KF 5 jaw folder, section stitcher, skip slitter and a variable perforation unit for tear-out ads. Half-covers and flying pages are additional production options.