Business News
Compact newspaper press for the city of Mozart
Wednesday 06. October 2010 - KBA Commander CT 6/2 to replace satellites at Salzburger Nachrichten
On the first day of the IFRA Expo 2010 newspaper trade fair in Hamburg, longstanding KBA customer Salzburger Nachrichten signed up for a 6/2 Commander CT. The highly automated 48pp press with two reelstands, two compact 6/2 towers and one folder will be installed at the end of next year and will replace a 1990s-vintage Commander satellite press. Along with the flagship title, Salzburger Nachrichten, which is printed in several editions and has a daily circulation of between 85,000 and over 125,000 copies depending on the day of the week, the new triple-width Commander CT will print six regional editions of a weekly title, Salzburger Woche (circulation: around 80,000 copies) in full colour throughout. Once a month the Salzburger Woches circulation leaps to 185,000, when copies are delivered to every household in the district.
Austrian national daily
Salzburger Nachrichten, which first hit the streets in 1945, is virtually a national title since it is distributed throughout the country. Still a family-owned publication, it is read by as many as 300,000 people. In addition to the broadsheet distributed nationwide, readers in Salzburg province receive regional and local news in a separate stitched tabloid with 24 to 40 pages. The company also has a website, salzburg.com.
Alexander Frommer, managing director of the Salzburg printing plant, says: “We used to print the broadsheet and tabloid products separately and then insert the regional section in the Salzburg edition. With the 6/2 Commander CT, which was engineered to our precise specifications for maximum versatility and features a skip slitter and stitcher, we can print regional editions – which comprise a major proportion of our output – in one pass. And because edition and pagination changes are so fast on the CT, we can print the entire run on one press, whereas previously we had to use two.” Roman Minimayr, managing director of the Salzburger Nachrichten publishing house, adds: “The new press has not only cut per-copy costs but has also enhanced immediacy, while its automated plate changing and array of automation modules have delivered huge savings in waste, labour and maintenance input.”
The benefits of a compact design
Dr Maximilian Dasch, publisher and co-proprietor of the Salzburger Nachrichten, says: “What impressed me most about this high-tech press was its huge output, fast makeready and first-class print quality. From what we have seen, the transition from the satellites that served us so well for many years to KBAs innovative compact tower went without a hitch, even when the press was printing webs 1,800mm wide. For us, the benefits are overwhelming.”
Superlative equipment
The substructure 6/2 KBA Commander CT press line in Salzburg with a maximum web width of 1,800mm (70.75in) has a cylinder circumference of 900mm (35.43in) and a maximum output of 90,000 four-colour copies per hour in straight production. Press kit includes:
Two KBA Pastomat reelstands for reels up to 1,524mm (60in) in diameter and 5/12, 7/12 and 11/12 ribbons for spadias;
KBA Patras A automated reel logistics;
Automatic pagination change;
Two triple-width printing towers with KBA PlateTronic automatic plate changers, KBA RollerTronic rollers locks, KBA NipTronic bearing technology, fan-out compensation, automatic colour-register controls, CleanTronic blanket washing, inking-unit and dampener washing and central ink pumping;
Two double turner bars, a folder superstructure with three formers and a KBA KF 5 jaw folder;
Cut-off register, sidelay, web centre and pre-former guidance;
A skip slitter, a gluing unit, ribbon and section stitchers plus half-cover, ZipnBuy and four-page centre-spread capabilities for more creative ad forms;
Two KBA ErgoTronic consoles with EasyTronic waste- and time-saving press start-up and run-down;
ABBs MPS production scheduling and presetting software.