Page 27 - Print21 Jan-Feb 2022

Revolution in Print
says it will deliver time savings of 25 minutes by optimising production schedules and job specifications.
The Rapida 106 X also has a
new black and grey livery and has illuminated glass side panels. Dave Lewis, managing director of Koenig & Bauer Australasia, said, “The new Rapida 106 offers commercial and packaging printers unparalleled levels of productivity. With high speed, makeready in genuine minutes, and connectivity, it is a press for the modern era.”
It has a new touchscreen operating panel and comes with a press status display at the delivery end. It also has an app, which gives details on the current job and the next in line. The Job Optimiser software is a bridge between a printer's MIS and the Koenig & Bauer Logotronic press management system.
Among the innovations, the new Rapida 106 X accepts unbent plates, doing away with a step in pre-press, and its simultaneous roller wash works on UV applications. It has a new cold foil module delivering foil savings. Ink colour can be changed in less than two minutes, thanks to upgraded ink ducts.
KBA is also launching a new B2 sheetfed offset press, the Rapida 76, available in a multitude of straight, perfecting, commercial, packaging, and special configurations, and targeting high-end print production in the medium size format.
The highly automated press has a small footprint, runs at 18,000sph,
and comes with what Koenig & Bauer says are both new and proven automation functions, which characterise the Rapida 76 as an efficient, high-performance press. It is available in both standard sheet format of 530 x 750mm, and special format of 605 x 750mm.
The manroland sheetfed business says order numbers for presses
have hit a 10-year high, as print businesses around the world moved to re-equip their offset fleets following the 18-month Covid hiatus. Printers in the US and Europe are driving the demand, particularly for the B1 Roland 700 and the Size 6 Roland 900 Evolution series presses. The company says the advanced technology of the presses is seeing them win orders.
And it has created three models under the Roland 700 Evolution umbrella, with the flagship model being the Roland 700 Evolution Elite, which it says will work with all job types, and comes with versatility, with inline foiling, as well as different coating options. It will have coaters, dryers and inline foiling, with simultaneous plate loading and wash up programmes using digitally controlled servo motors, Direct Drive, to wash impression and blanket cylinders and change all plates in less than four minutes. Time to clear the ink train and coating plates as well as the plate change functions is reduced by 60 per cent, the company says.
The 20,000sph Roland 700 Evolution Speed targets the long run
sector in terms of sheetfed printing, where the additional speed is a major factor.
The Roland 700 Evolution Lite is the entry level press, without all the bells and whistles of other models
– there is no simultaneous plate changing for example – but with the same level of engineering, and which is designed for the sector of the market that has always considered manroland too expensive. The 15,000sph press will print on stocks between 0.04mm and 1mm. Coating and UV drying are options.
Komori has a new series of what it says are self-learning sheetfed presses. The company says they have improvements from feeder to delivery and will use a robot to feed into folder and guillotine.
Self-learning
Komori’s Lithrone GX/G advance series of B1 presses feature a self- learning function, and a new control platform for linkage of high-level printing systems, which, Komori says, result in a dramatic reduction of touchpoints
The company says the new presses have improved suitability for high- speed, long-run printing, and for short-run on demand printing.
The rationale for the new presses comes in particular, says Komori, from the demands for production of small lots, high added value products and short turnarounds, which have become urgent. It says to meet
these demands, printing company management faces one of its most critical issues: to what extent can productivity in the printing process be raised.
Komori has strengthened collaboration with KP-Connect solution cloud, which enables the smart factory, including MIS,
prepress and postpress. KP-Connect was developed based on Komori's Connected Automation concept. This realises strengthened collaboration and optimisation between processes as well as high-level automation with presets, based on information from high-end systems, so contributing to productivity improvement throughout the entire printing process.
RMGT, formerly Ryobi, has been successful with the 920 series SRA1 press, which allowed eight pages to view, but placing a colour bar was a challenge. The new RMGT 970 is still smaller than the B1 standard, with a 650x965mm print area, which gives the space for colour strips. RMGT claims it gives significant savings. 21
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