Offset Printing

KBA Comet with dryer for cost-effective book production

Friday 06. August 2010 - Editorial Ultra in Mexico City upgrades press line-up

A few weeks ago Compañía Editorial Ultra fired up a KBA Comet at its production plant in Mexico City. The new press, which features a four-high tower for 4/4 and a heatset capability and is used to print books, follows a Compacta 215 delivered in 2004.


A longstanding customer of KBA, Editorial Ultra is a family enterprise which was established in 1983 and is headed today by three brothers. Over the years it has built up a reputation throughout Mexico and beyond for high-quality books, periodicals, brochures and flyers. Since the 1980s these have been printed on KBA Compacta commercial web presses.



Mexico City is the political, economic and cultural capital of this densely populated country. The city proper has around 9 million, the metropolitan area has an estimated population of over 20 million. Alongside their fast-growing domestic market Mexican printers have long since expanded into the high-volume US market. Mexico is one of the biggest printing hubs in Latin America, alongside Brazil. So flexible, cost-effective press lines like the Comet, which is operation the world over, are in brisk demand among Mexican printers.
General manager Enrique Espinosa says: “The single-width heatset Comet, with its high output, reliable operation, fine print quality and production flexibility, was custom-configured to our specifications. Its performance has surpassed all our expectations. It has enabled us to produce books much more cost-effectively and to drive growth in the market with much more competitive prices.”
Rigorous quality standards right from the start
The Comet has a 578mm (22.75in) cut-off and a web width variable from 630 to 1,000mm (24.85 – 39.37in). For book production full-circumference plates are used. The maximum rated output is 75,000 copies in straight-run production. The floor-mounted press with thermal dryer is fed with paper from a Pastoline reelstand embedded in a Patras M manually operated reel-loading system. Special features include a chill roller stand, a folder superstructure with one former and a heatset-compatible KF 3 SC jaw folder. Auxiliary features such as a second cross fold, a quarter fold, gluing and perforating devices support a wide choice of inline finishing options. The control system for colour and cut-off register incorporates mRC cameras supplied by QI. The press is controlled from two KBA consoles.