KBA showcases first commercial Cortina site

KBA has demonstrated the worlds first multi-tower installation of its Cortina compact and waterless newspaper press at an open house in Holland.

The three-tower, 48pp press was shown producing a full-colour 96pp tabloid in straight mode, followed by a print run for a local broadsheet paper.

Plate changing on the press is fully-automatic on one tower and semi-automatic on the other two. The press was commissioned at independent publisher Rodi Rotatiedruk's 6.2m-high building in Broek op Langedijk, in the north of Holland, in March.

KBA reported that it now has seven orders for the press in Holland, Germany and Switzerland including a 12-tower, 192pp broadsheet line with four folders from De Persgroep in Asse, Belgium.

There are no UK orders as yet, although representatives from three UK newspaper printers were scouting the halls at Wednesday's demonstration.

Story by Josh Brooks