König & Bauer AG - KBA’s eighteenth Cortina earmarked for Sweden

MittMedia Print, a subsidiary of Sweden’s fourth-largest media group MittMedia Förvaltnings in Gävle, is gearing up for sustained growth and expanding its product spectrum with a compact waterless KBA Cortina whose hybrid coldset/heatset capabilities enable it to print semi-commercials (supplements and magazines) alongside newspapers. Since there is no fan-out in waterless offset it is possible to produce high-quality hybrid copies containing both heatset and coldset sections. The press line for MittMedia Print will be the eighteenth Cortina to leave the KBA production line, but the first such installation in Sweden. The investment package includes new finishing kit and an extension to MittMedia’s production plant in Sundsvall, where the Cortina is scheduled to come on stream in spring 2011. A city with around 95,000 inhabitants some 400km (250 miles) north of Stockholm on the Baltic coast, Sundsvall was previously dominated by paper and pulp production but has since evolved into a centre for cellulose- and aluminium-processing industries, IT and telecommunications.

“Our strategic investment in the titles printed in Sundsvall – the Sundsvalls Tidning and Dagbladet – furnishes the technology to address a brisk demand for tabloid products on coated stock,” says MittMedia Print managing director Jan Andersson. “We want to gain a foothold in the heatset and hybrid market with all possible speed. So the Cortina, with its outstanding image quality, fast makeready and unique, rapid conversion between coldset and heatset with no change of ink, is the perfect press for this purpose. Its impressive green credentials, with minimum waste and a total absence of fount solution, appeal to environmentally sensitive print buyers.”

Unique features
The double-wide press line with a 560mm (22in) cut-off and a maximum rated output of 75,000cph will initially comprise two KBA Pastomat reelstands, two compact four-high towers and a KF3 folder, but provision has been made for future extensions. It will be capable of printing 64pp tabloid copies in full colour. KBA PlateTronic automatic plate changers and automatic conversion from the maximum web width of 1,590mm (62.5in) to another width, eg 1,260mm (49.5in) for magazines, support high-speed job changes. The Cortina’s unique KBA NipTronic bearing technology, which guarantees optimum impression pressure and can be adjusted quickly and easily for different stock types, is another winning feature, while KBA’s innovative ribbon-splitting device cuts the conversion times for different tabloid formats. The webs run unturned through the two formers, after which the slit ribbons are assigned to the relevant stitchers. This makes it much easier to produce tabloid sections with different page counts.

The customised superstructure has four turner bars, two bay-window rollers and two formers above the folder to support a wide choice of products. Copies can be delivered glued, stitched, perforated and/or with a quarterfold. The Cortina will be controlled from a KBA ErgoTronic console with presetting software. Automatic colour and cut-off register controls, KBA CleanTronic blanket washing and a raft of other features enable the press to deliver a superb image and fold quality with minimum waste.

Says Jan Andersson: “This highly advanced compact press can print and inline finish premium-quality newspapers and semi-commercials fast and cost-effectively, in runs ranging from ultra-short to 300,000 copies. Our upgraded finishing department can create tabloid copies with up to 128 pages. The new technology package affords opportunities that were previously unknown in Sweden, and we are exploiting its unique capabilities to expand still further in the regional market.”

Major milestone
A KBA Journal web press has been in operation at MittMedia’s production plant in Gävle since spring 1995. In 2004 MittMedia Print in Östersund fired up an eight-tower KBA Continent. After signing the latest contract KBA sales director Jochen Schwab said: “Choosing the most advanced press technology on the market is a further display of confidence in the innovative powers and competence of Koenig & Bauer, and a major milestone in the long and successful relationship our two companies enjoy.”

The MittMedia Förvaltnings media group owns 17 regional newspaper titles in central and northern Sweden with circulations totalling 280,000 copies per day. In addition to newspaper publishing and digital media the group’s activities include distribution, commercial radio and commercial printing. Following rapid growth through acquisitions in 2005 and 2008, last year the group’s workforce of 1,700 generated sales of €160m. Subsidiary MittMedia, which operates seven printing plants and has a total of 115 employees, posts annual sales of around €30m.

Opting for conservation
This Swedish media group’s decision in favour of the Cortina is a vote for conservation, which is traditionally a key criterion in Scandinavia. Waterless newspaper production with the Cortina is already well established in Denmark, and imminent in Finland.

The Koenig & Bauer Group is one of the largest press manufacturers worldwide and has the broadest press range in the industry. The parent company is Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) with facilities in Würzburg, Radebeul, Frankenthal and Trennfeld (all in Germany).

The other core members of the Group are Maschinenfabrik KBA-Mödling AG in Mödling, near Vienna (Austria), KBA-Grafitec s.r.o. in Dobruška (Czech Republic), KBA-Metronic AG in Veitshöchheim, near Würzburg (Germany), KBA-MetalPrint GmbH in Stuttgart (also Germany) and KBA-GIORI S.A. in Lausanne (Switzerland). KBA North America Inc. in Dallas, Texas (USA), is our sales and service subsidiary for the US and Canada. In addition we have sales and service outlets in the UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Brazil, Russia, Poland, Australia, China, Malaysia and Singapore, plus a global network of dealers. The core companies in the Group employ some 7,500 people.