Offset Printing

Keski-Pohjanmaan Kirjapaino in Kokkola plans transition to waterless production

Signing the contract in Würzburg for the seventeenth KBA Cortina to leave the production line (l-r): HSS Media managing director Hans Boije, Keski-Pohjanmaan Kirjapaino CEO Antti Porko and chairman of the board Jukka Tunkkari, and KBA sales director Jochen Schwab. Looking on are consultant Erkki Kulmala from Kulmalan Koulu, KBA sales manager Bertram Bungartz and KBA Nordic’s Finland director Marcus Juselius and sales manager Anders Skäär

Friday 29. May 2009 - Seventeenth KBA Cortina earmarked for Finland

Early next year Finnish media house Keski-Pohjanmaan Kirjapaino will open a new chapter in newspaper and semi-commercial production with the installation of a 4/1 KBA Cortina at its Kokkola facility. “In the fiercely competitive daily, weekly and magazine market, actively addressing the increasingly sophisticated quality demands of our advertisers and readers is an ongoing challenge, as is the need to enhance the cost efficiency and flexibility of our production plants in Helsinki, Kokkola and Ylivieska,” says Jukka Tunkkari, chairman of the board of Keski-Pohjanmaan Kirjapaino.

“We are totally refurbishing our Kokkola operation with cutting-edge technology, and chose Koenig & Bauer’s compact Cortina because it delivers benefits no other press can match: a superb print quality with halved dot gain, a minimum of waste, reduced manning levels and high-speed edition changes. Opting for the innovative Cortina reaffirms our acknowledged reputation for pioneering technology,” adds CEO Antti Porko.
The press for the west Finnish port of Kokkola will be the seventeenth waterless, keyless Cortina to leave the production line. Twelve installations with a total of 46 four-high towers are already in action in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Other major press lines will soon be added in Germany, France and Dubai. The 82 Cortina towers ordered to date include both double wide (4/1 and 4/2) and triple wide (6/2) versions, some with heatset dryers for printing supplements and magazines on coated stock.

Multimedia house with strong roots in print
Founded in 1917, on the eve of Finland’s independence, over the past 92 years Keski-Pohjanmaan Kirjapaino has evolved into a modern multimedia group. While print remains its core business, it is actively engaged in e-media (internet, online services, television) and also offers a broad spectrum of graphic design and communications services. The main titles in its stable of newspapers and magazines are Keskipohjanmaa, published seven days a week with a circulation of some 27,000 copies in and around Kokkola, and Kalajokilaakson, which appears five days a week and is the local title for Ylivieska.

Efficiency-enhancing automation

The new four-by-one KBA Cortina will have a 560mm (22in) cut-off on a maximum web width of 1600mm (63in), and will be capable of printing 150,000 full-colour 32pp tabloid copies per hour. The four KBA Pastomat C reelstands will be embedded in a KBA Patras A automatic reel-handling system complete with a KBA stripping station. The four compact towers can be split down the centre at the touch of a button for maintenance tasks (eg blanket changes) and boast KBA’s PlateTronic automatic plate changers, RollerTronic automatic roller locks, NipTronic bearers and CleanTronic blanket washing systems along with automatic colour register controls and central ink pumping. Other features include four turner bars, two folder superstructures with two formers, cut-off register controls and two KBA KF 3 jaw folders. Copies can be stitched, glued, perforated or scored and delivered after the quarterfold. The substructure press will be controlled from KBA ErgoTronic consoles with press presetting software and optional online remote maintenance. Provision has been made to add further inline finishing capabilities at a later date.