A waterless press with coaters on each web will print quality newspaper and semicommercial work at Trier in Germany.

The specially-equipped KBA Cortina has been ordered by Volksfreund-Druckerei Nikolaus Koch – a subsidiary of Saarbrücker Zeitungsgruppe – for commissioning early next year.

Group chief executive Joachim Meinhold says the installation takes Trierischer Volksfreund into an new era, Putting it “technologically and economically in pole position”. It is also expected to secure the long-term viability of the printing plant.

The two-tower press will have coaters on each web – an option only possible with the waterless technology – supported by an IR/hot-air ‘drying aid’. Water-based coating can be printed on both sides of the web in varying widths, with products finished immediately.

It will have a 510 mm cut-off and automatic web-width adjustment between 1200-1400 mm, and print up to 32 broadsheet or 64 tabloid colour pages at 85,000 cph.

A customised superstructure will have two automatic double turner bars, a folder superstructure with three formers and a skip slitter for a wide range of products, plus facilities for glueing, stitching and perforation.

Thomas Marx, managing director of the 100,000 daily Trierischer Volksfreund, says the new technology will open up new business lines: “Besides printing our daily newspaper, we will be able to print additional products of our own as well as external work, in various formats and substrates,” he says.

“Our service and product range for the printing industry will significantly expand thanks to this new press. The two integrated coaters contribute to this by coating both sides of the web for high-quality brochures, flyers, supplements and special products.”

In addition to the newspaper and its 12 regional editions, the company produces a regional business journal, lifestyle children’s and football magazines, as well as cross-border newspaper DeLux with Luxemburger Tageblatt.