At the recent Print 09 event in Chicago, US, the German-based manufacturer produced a total of 17 unique 4/4 colour jobs, each with 500 saleable sheets, in one hour.

The jobs were printed on an eight-colour B1 Rapida 106 and involved a total of 136 plate changes.

KBA's latest self-declared record breaks the one it set at Drupa last year, when it completed 15 520-sheet jobs in 59 minutes and 36 seconds, also on a Rapida 106.

The company is now targeting another record-breaking performance at next year's Ipex where it will showcase its Flying JobChange (FJC) system, which was first unveiled at an open house earlier this year.

FJC, which is a retro-fit upgrade commercially available to most Rapida users with DriveTronic SPC, enables plate changes to be carried out on two units of a four-unit press, while the other two continue to run at 10,000sph.

Once all of the plates have been changed, the press returns to 15,000sph. According to KBA, the system will herald a new era of "zero makeready" non-stop print production, leading to a 50% upturn in productivity.