KBA’s World Publishing Expo/IfraExpo focus will centre on the new ‘flexibly automated’ Commander CL tower press it launched at the show last year.
The year has seen five press lines with a total of 152 printing units ordered by publishers in Germany and the USA. The latest press was sold to ‘Fränkische Landeszeitung’ in Ansbach
The first two CL (for classic) presses go live at Zeitungsverlag Oberbayern in Penzberg and at Oberbayerisches Volksblatt in Rosenheim soon after the show. In addition 12 other large double or triple-wide Commander CTs, some of them multi-unit press lines, have gone or will soon go live in Germany, England, Austria, Sweden and Italy. At the beginning of June a large Cortina with 12 towers and four thermal dryers was fired up at Gulf News in Dubai.
KBA Colora and Comet presses were sold to printers in Canada, China and the Middle East. “Despite competition from online media, the newspaper industry is still investing in new kit, albeit on a smaller scale than before the financial crisis,” says a spokesman.
In addition to technical innovations, the company is addressing these market changes with an expanded service portfolio. KBA recently entered an alliance with the automation specialist EAE to meet an emerging demand for retrofits for older web presses, and has signed Dumont Schauberg in Cologne for onsite technical support through its PrintHouse Services subsidiary.
Pictured: The view from the console of the Commander CT 6/2 at Badische Neueste Nachrichten, commissioned recently