KBA and control specialist EAE will work together on retrofits with the German press maker as project manager under an agreement signed this month.

The cooperation deal follows completion of joint retrofit projects in three German cities, Marl, Siegen and Stade.

The companies say they aim to present users with customised and customer-orientated concepts for maintenance and modernisation of older presses of all types – either progressively or as a full scale solution. KBA will takes over project management and coordination of process control implementation by EAE for shared retrofit projects.

"If a newspaper press is to be retrofitted and updated for production security over the next eight to 15 years, the mechanical components and controls have to be evaluated in a shared context,” says KBA business unit manager Jens Maul. “That way we can create economic standard solutions for our customers.”

The companies say their cooperation will also makes way for new and innovative solutions for improvement in efficiency and further automation of existing machines.