Offset Printing
DriveTronic SPC and other value-added efficiency enhancers
Wednesday 30. January 2008 - KBA at 30th print forum in Stuttgart
The 30th Print Forum in Stuttgart on 25 January provided an update on the extensive value-added technologies and automation options available for KBA sheetfed presses. As in previous years, the event was opened and chaired by KBA marketing director Klaus Schmidt. Jürgen Veil, head of sheetfed marketing at KBAs Radebeul facility, and Herbert Bier, managing director of StieberDruck in Lauda-Königshofen, offered the vendors and users perspective on the wide-ranging options and efficiency gains possible with the latest automation modules, among them DriveTronic SPC direct plate-cylinder drives.
Minimising makeready a key issue in sheetfed offset
Klaus Schmidt outlined the various strategies employed by litho printers confronted with wrenching market changes, spiralling costs, aggressive price competition and ever tighter deadlines. The ongoing automation of print production has brought a shift towards bigger formats, while higher press speeds and shorter print runs have made makeready and waste minimisation a key issue for both vendors and users. In realigning their operations, sheetfed printers pursue very different strategies. Many enhance efficiency through automation and workflow integration, others make the transition to large format or focus on finishing, short runs or green printing, for which there is a growing demand. Expanding the product portfolio and offering web-to-print services is also an increasingly popular tool for gaining and retaining customers. KBA regularly uses the forum to promote new trends: green printing (2005), bigger formats (2006) and inline coating (2007).
According to Schmidt, new automation modules like the DriveTronic SPC direct plate-cylinder drives that KBA unveiled last September on its high-speed Rapida 105 B1 (41in) press can dramatically enhance productivity. More than half the 20-plus Rapida 105 press lines featuring DriveTronic SPC have been functioning flawlessly for more than two years at printers in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. They include typical configurations for printing packaging, long perfectors with eight to ten printing units for printing high-grade commercials, books and catalogues or magazine covers in short runs. But as Herbert Bier of StieberDruck demonstrated, simultaneous plate changes can make economic sense for other types of press as well.
Jürgen Veil kicked off with a new issue of KBA Process, a technology periodical. Issue no. 4, which discusses practical applications for inline coating, features a wealth of helpful information including charts and tables on choosing coatings and screen rollers etc, practical tips from KBAs 2006 coating seminar, and coating-based business models. Not surprisingly, demand was brisk among forum attendees. Prior to Drupa KBA is planning to bring out a sumptuous sample book illustrating all the known coating processes and effects.
KBA market leader in dedicated drives for litho presses
But the focus of Veils presentation was the huge reduction in set-up time possible through process automation and simultaneity. KBAs DriveTronic concept, based on dedicated drives for maximum user benefit, embraces a shaftless feeder, frontlay adjustment, no-sidelay SIS infeed and SPC direct plate-cylinder drives. KBA lays claim to the pole position in automation technology. Value-added features include jerk-free height adjustment for the main and auxiliary piles, forward transfer of the sheets onto the feeder pile (DriveTronic Feeder) and the absence of all setting processes with (DriveTronic SIS).
DriveTronic SPC cuts plate-changing time on a Rapida 105 to just 60 seconds, irrespective of the number of printing units and their configuration. However, as Jürgen Veil made clear using makeready diagrams, simultaneous plate changing alone has little impact on makeready times: it must be combined with simultaneity in other processes such as:
automatic job-changing programs
job-specific data reloading at the console
multi-purpose washing systems
automatic cleaning systems for the coater
automatic coating plate change
console-controlled coating feed
ink run-up programs
ability to disengage idle inking units
automatic suction-ring positioning on perfecting presses
quick-start function
ACR (automatic camera register) control.
Depending on the press configuration and sophistication, as many as six processes can run simultaneously, cutting by 40 to 60 per cent the time required for a complete job change. As a result, annual press output can climb by around 15 per cent.
StieberDruck: 3 hour 45 minute time gain in triple-shift operation
Speaking as a user, Herbert Bier was able to confirm this time saving. At present his company runs three Rapida medium-format presses, among them a four-colour Rapida 105 with DriveTronic SPC that went live last December. Despite the relatively short period of operation the press has already pumped out over two million sheets. Bier calculates that job changes with DriveTronic SPC are five minutes shorter, on average, than with conventional drives. They now take less than ten minutes – and this usually includes changes of stock weight and format. With an average of 30 makereadies in two-shift operation, the time gain can be as much as 2½ hours a day, so the capital cost for DriveTronic SPC is recouped in less than a year. In triple-shift operation Bier estimates that the number of job changes on the new Rapida 105 will rise to 45 per day – a time saving of 3¾ hours or almost half a shift, which can profitably be used to print more jobs.
But if this time gain is to be exploited to the full, efficient job preparation is vital. So platemaking – and logistics – must be able to keep pace. Manning is also crucial. “The press needs a minder and a helper, I cant get the most out of it with just one operator,” says Bier.