Sidelay action is carried out by the grippers on the feed drum in the radical new feed system. It uses a single, wide friction belt.

Designed to speed up the press and eliminate mis-feeds, the machine was shown running at 18,100sph.

Jrgen Veil head of marketing for sheetfed said the press was three to four years ahead of its time.

A new version of the Rapida 162 was shown running at 14,000 sheets an hour, which was described as very impressive for a press of that sheet size by Butler & Tanner director of printing Andrew Pang.

As well as mechanical improvements KBA has extended the curved modern design of the Karat and Genius to rest of its range, and marking the end of an era, dropped the Planeta name.

KBA showed the products at a three-day worldwide customer event this week for more than 1,400 international clients.

Over 120 UK visitors attended, including representatives from St Ives, AGI, Augustus Martin, Riverwood International and FE Burman.

The attendees also saw the new Rapida 205 at the first installation in the world at Ellerhold Grossplakate in Radebeul. It was seen printing a sheet size of 205x151cm at 8,000 sheets per hour.

Delegates had an in-depth look at KBAs Drupa launches the Rapida 74G with Gravuflow inking. There was also a conventional five-colour with coater Rapida 74 in KBAs new design and with an enhanced spec, running at 18,000sph.


Story by Jo Francis in Radebeul