The agreement, which was signed earlier this month and will come into force on 1 December, means that from initial planning meetings with customers through to installation sign-off, local Flint Group technical staff will support KBA’s engineers to ensure each new press is up and running and producing high-quality print.

Flint Group OEM technical coordination director Richard Wilson said the agreement will benefit printers.

“A local back-up with consistent, reliable products will help KBA get the press printing to spec more efficiently, while the customer will start gaining returns from their investment faster. It takes a variable out of the process and will mean sign-off can be achieved quicker than might otherwise be the case.”

KBA head of print technology Dirk Winkler said the company has achieved “excellent and stable results” with Flint Group inks for conventional ink benchmarking as well as during high-performance tests in the areas of packaging, commercial, label and web-to-print applications.

“Particular strengths are seen in reduced ink consumption, high colour brilliance and contrast, smooth reproduction, convenient handling and the reliable printing of solids,” said Winkler.

“Equally decisive, however, is cooperation to develop and standardise new ink systems, and naturally the joint support for users, for example in the food packaging sector.”

KBA said it recommends the use of different Flint Group inks for different applications; Novavit F700 on mineral oil basis or Novavit F950 on vegetable oil basis for straight printing, F950 for perfecting, Novavit F1000 Win Bio for general packaging printing and Novasens P660 Premium for food packaging.

All inks are subject to constant testing and, where necessary, are modified specifically to suit the fast Rapida presses.