Karat Genius 52 challenges GTO

Feb 1, 2002 12:00 PM

KBA’s 15,000-sq.-ft. stand (no. 12-140 in hall 12) at Ipex 2002 will showcase new advances in both conventional and digital sheetfed offset, complete with the related workflows.

KBA’s entry into the popular B3 market last November with the 46 Karat will be followed at Ipex by the world premiere of the Genius 52, whose 14 x 20-inch format competes head on with the Heidelberg’s GTO-52. The Genius 52 will be offered as a four- or five-colour version. It will target graphic enterprises that either still work with analogue plates or already use CTP and are looking for an easy-to-use press capable of printing short-run color quickly.

The Genius 52 – like the 74 Karat and 46 Karat a waterless offset press--will be available initially as a four- or five-colour version, with a four-plus-coater version for water-based coatings in the pipeline. The printing units are positioned in V-shaped assemblies around a central impression cylinder. Each sheet is printed register-true in a single gripper bite, with no sheet transfer.

Like the 74 Karat, the Genius 52 features high-performance keyless inking units with anilox rollers and doctor blades. The anilox roller, forme roller, plate cylinder and blanket cylinder all have the same diameter to guarantee a ghosting-free image. There is no need to adjust the inking rollers.

The versatile Genius 52 reportedly can handle a broad range of substrates from paper to carton and (in conjunction with a UV package) plastic and film up to 0.8mm (32pt) thick. The press can run with Presstek, KPG or Toray waterless CTP plates, or Toray’s proven waterless analogue plates. The automatic plate-mounting sequence, circumferential register and substrate thickness can all be controlled from the console. This, plus an automatic blanket-washing system, reduces job changes on a four-color press to just five minutes or so. The Technotrans cooling system keeps the inking units and plate cylinders at a constant temperature, irrespective of run length.

The Genius 52 is manufactured under an OEM agreement by Metronic, which is located near from KBA’s Würzburg, Germany headquarters.

Collaboration on the new press will intensify KBA’s long-standing association with Metronic. Alongside a global network of sales and service outlets for the paper and board sectors, KBA will bring to the table its formidable expertise and technological superiority in keyless inking, in which it is the global market leader. Metronic will handle all marketing and sales activities for the Genius 52 in its specialist markets, plastic and card printing, for which the press will include a UV package.

DI press news The Genius 52 on the KBA stand at Ipex will be joined by a DI offset press – the 46 Karat – that KBA launched last November as part of a strategic alliance with US-based Presstek Inc. Having booked orders in the Republic of Ireland, Switzerland and other European countries, KBA is confident that it will soon acquire the sales rights for the UK as well. (There are no plans to distribute this press in the U.S.)

Ipex will see the unveiling of the first 74 Karat B3 digital offset press with inline aqueous coater. Available as an option, the coater expands the 74 Karat’s range of applications and dramatically reduces throughput times for work and turn jobs by enabling the sheets to be run through the press again as soon as the plates have been re-imaged, or immediately if the same image is to be printed on the reverse side. One of the advantages of the 74 Karat is that the sheets are printed on the underside, so the pile only has to be rotated 180 degrees for a second pass, and not turned over. KBA will be demonstrating this at Ipex.

At Drupa 2000 and Print 01 KBA spearheaded new inline coating applications combining different types of ink – hybrid and conventional – and green printing technology (KBA is said to be the only press manufacturer to achieve environmental accreditation for its entire fleet of sheetfed offset presses). At Ipex KBA will focus on high-volume commercial print production on conventional Rapida presses. Its flagship in the 3B format will be a highly automated Rapida 105 ten-unit perfector press.

Rapida 74 with PerfectorThe Rapida 74 B2 press type launched at Drupa 2000 will also feature in Birmingham, this time as a six-colour version with a new, automatically reversible three-drum perfector to support 6/0 and 2/4. This new option will substantially increase the possible applications for this highly versatile press, whose talents range from paper and board to plastic.

Alongside computer to press with the Karat machines, workflow demonstrations will feature a Creo Lotem 800V ctp system and Presstek’s 19 x 27-inch Dimension 400 platesetter for the conventional medium-format press. KBA will also spotlight printshop networking with its Logotronic production management system and, in collaboration with Httprint, the Printanet e-commerce system for the 74 Karat.