KBA Builds Cortina 4-by-1 for Finnish Publisher

By: E&P Staff Early next year Finland's Keski-Pohjanmaan Kirjapaino will install a 4-by-1 KBA Cortina at its facility in the western port of Kokkola.

The waterless, keyless Cortina will have a 22-inch cut-off on a maximum web width of 63 inches, and will be capable of printing 150,000 full-color 32-page tabloid copies per hour. Four KBA Pastomat C reelstands will be embedded in a KBA Patras A automatic reel-handling system with a KBA stripping station. The press will be configured with four turner bars, two folder superstructures with two formers, cut-off register controls and two KBA KF 3 jaw folders.

The four compact towers can be opened at the center at the touch of a button for maintenance and feature KBA PlateTronic automatic plate changers, RollerTronic automatic roller locks, NipTronic bearers and CleanTronic blanket-washing systems, along with automatic color-register controls and central ink pumping. The press will be controlled from KBA ErgoTronic consoles with presetting software and optional online remote maintenance.

Copies can be stitched, glued, perforated or scored and delivered after the quarterfold, and provision was made to add further inline finishing capabilities at a later date.

"In the fiercely competitive daily, weekly and magazine market, actively addressing the increasingly sophisticated quality demands of our advertisers and readers is an ongoing challenge, as is the need to enhance the cost efficiency and flexibility of our production plants," Keski-Pohjanmaan Kirjapaino Chairman Jukka Tunkkari said in a statement. CEO Antti Porko added that the Cortina was chosen because it provides "halved dot gain, a minimum of waste, reduced manning levels and high-speed edition changes.

Founded in 1917, Keski-Pohjanmaan Kirjapaino is now a multimedia group with print as its core business. Its main newspapers are a 27,000-copy seven-day for the Kokkola area and a five-day local paper for Ylivieska.

The press will be the 17th Cortina KBA has built. Twelve installations with a total of 46 four-high towers now operate in five other European countries, with others soon to be added, including an installation in Dubai. The 82 towers ordered to date include double- (4/1 and 4/2) and triplewide (6/2) versions, some with dryers for heatset printing supplements and magazines on coated stock.