Commander Press Sold To Swiss Paper

By: Jim Rosenberg Koenig & Bauer AG, Wurzburg, Germany, made the first sale of a six-page-wide, two-around press. Two large media companies that co-own Berne's Berner Zeitung BZ, Switzerland's largest daily, ordered 22 full-color Commander towers.

The first presses are to ship late next year to Zurich's Tamedia. A press for a new Espace Media Groupe plant in Berne will follow a year later.

The 6-by-2 tower is designed to print 24 four-color broadsheet pages while requiring less capital, space, energy, and labor than a conventional doublewide press. Rated for 90,000 copies per hour in straight production and able to handle 751/2-inch webs, the presses will have 37-inch cylinders (for production in the Berliner format).