Bolger Vision Beyond Print Installs Next-Generation Long Perfector

MINNEAPOLIS—November 29, 2006—KBA North America, a leading sheetfed offset press manufacturer based in Williston, VT, is announcing that Bolger Vision Beyond Print, a 220-employee, $30 million printer based in Minneapolis, has installed the first-of-its-kind press configuration of a KBA Rapida 105 ten-color perfecting press that prints and coats both sides of the sheet at once using UV inks. It also features coating towers after the fifth and tenth unit for special effects.

“In our intensely-competitive industry, it’s critical to differentiate ourselves from the competition, “ exclaims dik Bolger, executive officer at Bolger Vision Beyond Print, a 220-employee, $30 million printer based in Minneapolis. “In April 2004 at Drupa, we began to look for a new press and we looked at KBA’s Rapida 105 41-inch ten-color perfector press with UV curing and coating. But we weren’t sure it was the right press for us. After researching the entire press market---both straight and perfecting, we kept coming back to the KBA Rapida 105 ten-color perfector press. This press configuration, with coating towers after the fifth and tenth unit, is the first of its kind in North America. It surely does differentiate us from our competition and it is surely pushing the technology envelope.”

Bolger’s KBA Rapida 105 is a ten-color long perfector press - five colors plus coating over five colors plus coating. The press has two individual coating towers with interdeck UV dryers between printing units, and it will run hybrid inks. A video camera follows the sheet’s path through the press to ensure speed and accuracy. The press is also configured with automatic plate changing, sidelay-free infeed, single-suction belt tables, and adjustment-free gripper bars. Operational information is fed into Bolger’s MIS for later data analysis.

“We’re experienced with sheetfed perfectors,” says Bolger. “We have two existing perfectors from different press manufacturers: a 2/4 used for matte paper and a 1/1 generally used for uncoated paper. With those two presses, we’d have marking if we didn’t allow for gutters. The Rapida 105’s special smooth cylinders after the perfectors as well as its UV drying on both sides of the sheet eliminate these issues. There’s no marking with the Rapida 105 and there is no difference in the dot structure from one side to the other. The UV curing gives us better trapping and no dot gain. Our printed sheets are dry in the delivery of the press and ready for the bindery.”