Noticias 
With an investment of $31.6 million, Medienhaus Der neue Tag, Weiden, Germany, selected a triplewide version of the automated and compact KBA Commander CT press.
The two-tower, 48-page installation will go into a new plant, with commissioning slated next summer, when it will gradually take over production from a KBA Express dating from 1995. Besides the press hall, the 172,000-square-foot site will have warehouse space, a new mailroom and distribution area, and integrated prepress department. When complete, it will represent the largest investment by what will then be the 65-year-old company.
This new press "will enable us to print our newspapers, advertisers, supplements and magazines even more flexibly, efficiently and economically, with even more up-to-date content and in excellent full-color quality," Publisher and board member German Vogelsang said in a statement.
The company, owned by four families and staffed by more than 400 employees, publishes Der neue Tag, the largest daily newspaper in its region of northern Bavaria, along with the regional titles Sulzbach-Rosenberger Zeitung and Amberger Zeitung and five local editions. Total daily circulation comes to approximately 84,000 copies. It also produces contract print work, including others' weekly shoppers.
The triplewide Commander CT press will have a cutoff of
The press will feature two double turner decks, a three-former folder superstructure, KBA KF 5 jaw folder, section stitcher, skip slitter and variable perforation unit for tear-out ads ("Zip'n'Buy"). Half-covers and flying pages are additional production options. Low start-up waste is achieved with a combination of reel-alignment facilities, cut-off register control and web-guidance systems. Operation will be from two ErgoTronic consoles incorporating KBA production scheduling and press presetting, with KBA modules for automatic start-up and run-down.
The publisher-printer selected the Commander CT after observing Commander CT installations in Würzburg, Germany, and at New York's Daily News (July E&P), citing its level of automation with respect to makeready, waste, quality, operation and maintenance.
This latest order brings Commander CT sales to 72 towers, 33 of them triplewide, according to KBA, which said negotiations on further projects are nearing conclusion.
By: E&P Staff Published: July 09, 2010
NEW YORK
