KBA North America (Dallas) announces Mosaic -- a printing company specializing in UV, waterless and digital printing -- has produced unsurpassed quality results for four months on its KBA Rapida 105 41-inch sheetfed press through an entire press run for one of Mosaic’s very demanding quality-oriented customers. The press run was conducted at the firm’s Cheverly, MD, facility.

“When our customer first presented us with the objectives of a new print project and the Delta-E parameter, there was a question if it could be achieved at all or without major spoilage,” says Kurt Kroening, senior vice president of operations, Mosaic. “It was as tough of a challenge as you could possibly have without crossing over into the impossible. The key to achieving this difficult print job would be the ability of the KBA Densitronic S. When we were able to achieve the print result on the very first attempt, the customer was completely amazed. This gives us the confidence to go after additional very tight parameter business that some printers may say is crazy or impossible.”

KBA's closed-loop Densitronic S scanning spectrodensitometer system has proven to significantly reduce waste by measuring both the density and spectral values on the x and y axis. It is a combined density and color measuring system for quality control during printing. Densitronic S also permits direct measurements within the image. Deviations from defined target densities, color values and other quality parameters (dot gain, trapping, etc.) are recognized and displayed immediately. With integration for online control, the density and spectral deviations are converted into corrective adjustments for the individual ink keys. The Densitronic S controls the density and spectral parameters of each sheet by measuring along control strips or directly on the image.

“In our combined 59 years in the graphic arts business, we have never seen this level of quality where the delta E value 1.2 has been held throughout the entire press run,” says Kroening, along with Michael Eichler, KBA manager of technical services.