Seeking higher degrees of automation, packaging converters adopt Rapida 106

With packaging players in India realising the need for higher levels of automation on their offset presses, KBA has ramped up Rapida 106 installations in India, said Aditya Surana of Indo Polygraph Machinery, in conversation with PrintWeek India., Business

11 May 2016 | By Rushikesh Aravkar

Visit to KBA’s customer centre (l-r): Aditya Surana, managing director of KBA sales partner IPM, Muthukumaraswamy Muralidharan, engineering manager ITC, Kulasekaran Natarajan, production manager ITC and Bhupinder Sethi, KBA sales representative

He confirmed that there are 11 highly automated Rapida 106 machines running in India and three more are en route. These include one order booked by ITC for its third KBA Rapida 106 machine. The star: the KBA Rapida 106 eight colour press at Parksons’ Pantnagar plant with cold foil technology. Today, Parksons Packaging has seven KBA presses of which three are Rapida 106 while TCPL has four Rapida 106 machines.

After signing the contract at the KBA customer centre for two long Rapidas with a total of 17 printing and finishing units in 2014 l-r: Adiya Surana, managing director of KBA sales partner IPM; Ramesh Kejriwal, CEO of Parksons Packaging; sales director Dietmar Heyduck, sales manager Bhupinder Sethi and key account manager Jürgen Veil (all three from KBA)

“None of these presses are of less than six-colour plus coater configuration. And all but one are combi presses suitable for both UV and conventional inks,” added Surana.

Automation adds value

Surana pointed out, a print company in India needs a higher amount of sheets on pallets in a day with faster makereadies and UV curing at a higher speed.

Designed to enable time-saving job changeovers, KBA’s automation modules include its DriveTronic concept, which includes DriveTronic SIS, the sidelay-free infeed; DriveTronic SPC, for simultaneous plate changing; and DriveTronic Plate Ident, for register pre-setting and plate identification.

The kit USP is its DriveTronic SIS (Sensoric Infeed System), which comes standard on the press. Surana said, “There is no sidelay in the press. The patented KBA sheet infeed system controls lateral sheet alignment electronically.”

Saket Kanoria, CEO of TCPL, KBA sales director Dietmar Heyduck and KBA sales engineer Bhupinder Sethi (r-l) after signing the contract for an eight-colour Rapida 106 in 2014

Using what KBA calls integration into automatic format setting, it eliminates the need for operator intervention, and it has electronic drive elements for precise positioning of the sheet, even at maximum speed and pile side edge alignment via the SIS sensor.

“With the fully automatic plate changing system, all plates are changed in just less than three minutes – including register zeroing – irrespective of the length of the press. This press is configured in such a way that the users are running it at full speeds. Even the UV jobs are run at 16,000 sph.”

The Rapida 106 handles substrates from lightweight paper to a heavy board, and from plastic films to corrugated packaging. It also offers to finish in gloss or matt effects; all-over or spot finishes; single and multiple coating applications with dispersion; and/or UV varnishes. KBA now offers Rapida 106 at raised speeds of 20,000 sph for straight printing.