Barely a year after entering production, the KBA Rapida 106 at Packages in Lahore, the second-largest city in Pakistan, has already clocked up 70 million impressions – an announcement which further extends a long list of users who have publicized the production performance achieved with a KBA sheetfed offset press.
For Packages, established as a supplier of premium packaging solutions since 1956, a period of renewed strong growth highlighted the urgent need to increase print capacity at the company. Last year’s investment decision fell in favour of a 6-color Rapida 106 with in-line coater, extended delivery and additional automation features such as FAPC automatic plate changers and CleanTronic washing systems. The press was raised by 450 mm to facilitate packaging production with higher piles and is integrated with the prepress department via CIPLinkX.
The new press has brought the company more than just the envisaged capacity expansion. That was recently confirmed by Mudassar Shafique, business unit manager for folding cartons at Packages. “The Rapida 106 is a very operator friendly press – easy to handle and at the same time robust. The high print quality, right up to maximum production speed, is particularly remarkable. And over 70 million printed sheets in less than a year are even more remarkable,” he says. In his enthusiastic letter to the KBA management, Shafique went on to explain why the company was so thrilled, “We need fast job changes and the Rapida 106 makes that so easy for us. It also ensures fast job turnarounds. Print quality and speed have been revolutionized with the Rapida 106. 99.5% saleable production and only 3% waste are world-class performance. Those are the best quality and productivity figures which we have ever achieved.”
The original target for Packages was to print 90 jobs and a total of 6 million sheets in a month on the new press. With typically 150 job changes, the expectations have been exceeded by far. Regular production at 18,000 sheets an hour is one factor which has contributed to the outstanding result. At the same time, the printers at the company praise the broad spectrum of substrates which can be processed on the Rapida 106. “The investment in the KBA press has already more than paid off,” says Shafique. A second press can thus only be a matter of time.
