KBA-Motter Corp. announced that the Evansville (Ind.) Courier Co. has purchased a KBA FX4 flexographic color- printing unit. Motter also exhibited its Colormax SW, a new single-width tubular flexo press that was purchased recently by the Globe-Gazette of Mason City, Iowa.
MAN Roland Inc. focused on Aurosys, its new newsprint roll-handling system with operator-free press loading. Designed for the Geoman offset, a 70,000 papers-per-hour, modular press, Aurosys handles rolls from delivery through mounting on the reel chucks. In addition, MAN emphasized its commitment to flexography with Flexoman M, its third generation of flexo printing. The new press is modular in design, has a universal gearbox and accepts either right or left color decks for spot or process color.
A large, colorful schematic of a press layout for The Washington Post dominated the Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses Inc.'s booth. The newspaper purchased eight keyless offset presses. With a 54-inch web width and 22-inch cutoff, the presses can accept newsprint rolls up to 50 inches in diameter and have a maximum speed of 75,000 impressions per hour.
Maschinenfabrik WIFAG showed its Wifag OF 570, which has a gearless transmission drive. Developed in conjunction with ABB Industrie AG, another Swiss company, each printing couple has a separate drive, which allows page changes on the fly and can aid in producing zoned editions.
Rockwell Graphic Systems brought its massive Newsliner press to Atlanta. A special platform had to be built to redistribute the weight of the four-high tower press to meet the load-limit requirements of the show floor. In addition to the heavy metal, the company introduced automatic imposition software that allows workers to determine optimal color placement for advertising. The software offers up to 25 different sets of plate combinations. Rockwell also introduced Smart Comps, an automatic cut-off system that uses magnets to bring multiple webs into alignment.
Seiken Graphics Inc. offered a variety of web offset presses, including a keyless-anilox offset press with a short ink train for black-and-white and color printing. The company sells both its own presses with keyless-anilox inking and keyless-anilox-inking conversions for existing presses.
TKS (USA) Inc. exhibited its PerfecSet press automation system. Using electric motors separate from the press, it operates independently of press speed and allows users tighter control of ink. The ink control can be purchased on a TKS press or retrofitted to an existing press. The press-automation system includes a newspaper-production console that allows operators to preset ink/water levels and compensator positions, and to make changes while the press is running.
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TechNews Volume 1, Number 4: July/August 1995
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