KBA Shows RotaJET with Convincing Print Quality and Performance at the Hunkeler Innovation Days in Lucerne

... with interesting options for professionals

The image of a digital print system built for professionals by professionals is upheld by the availability of a web remoistening unit and a coater. The automatic reelstand KBA Pastoline is another interesting option which is not available in this form from any competitor. With the facility for flying changes, the autosplicer lends a considerable boost to performance and can also be integrated into an automated paper logistics set-up with KBA Patras. High-speed inkjet printing with the RotaJET is in this way lifted to previously unknown levels of productivity.

High-speed inkjet with a small footprint

The KBA team was initially none too happy with the very limited space provided at the Hunkeler Innovation Days. As a newcomer, the company had been allocated an area of just 91 m² for its 25-tonne high-speed press (3,000 A4 pages/min.; 85 million A4 pages/month). And that for the press with the greatest output at the show in Lucerne. On the other hand, the small stand did underline the compact design of the RotaJET. Thanks to an intelligent web lead, the press and rewinder are together just 10.5 m long and 6 m wide. It would not have been possible to install other 4/4 presses of this performance class in such a small space.

For its entry into the digital print market, KBA will at first be focussing on the target segments books, direct mailing, manuals, advertising, newsletters and newspapers. The live demonstrations of book production and a daily exhibition newspaper with original content from the “Neue Luzerner Zeitung” were among the highlights of the show. The book sections were produced reel-to-reel on the RotaJET and then combined with ready-printed offset covers on a Hunkeler finishing line. The finishing of the exhibition newspaper was also handled by post-press systems from Hunkeler.

The packaging and security printing segments are to be addressed later. One field which KBA excludes for the RotaJET, however, is the transaction and transpromo market which has evolved in the electronic business world. Printers interested in the new possibilities for digital print are offered break-even calculations and production scheduling analyses to assist their investment decision.