Offset Printing

KBA Rapida 106: 15 jobs in 59 minutes

Andreas Ullbrich and Ralf Maskos showed who is the real world champion in makeready. With their Rapida 106 they printed 15 jobs, each with 520 good sheets, in just 59 minutes and 36 seconds

Thursday 12. June 2008 - Lesson in high-speed production from the true world champion in makeready

While many lay claim to being the world champion in makeready, the true champion was to be found on the KBA stand at Drupa. At the request of a US customer, and watched by an attentive audience of trade professionals, on 10 June the Rapida 106 on show there printed a total of 15 jobs, each of 520 good sheets, in just 59 minutes and 36 seconds.

The production run entailed 14 complete makereadies. For press operators Andreas Ullbrich and Ralf Maskos this meant changing all eight plates 14 times, washing the blankets and changing the feeder and delivery piles. They took less than four minutes to make ready and print each of the 15 jobs.
Incidentally, following the customer’s spontaneous request for a demonstration of high-speed production, 120 plates were pumped out at short notice on Kodak’s Magnus CTP system and exposed on the KBA stand. No wonder the customer signed on the dotted line as soon as the demo ended.