KBA Completes Two 4-by-1 Installations, Announces a Third Sale

By: Meg Campbell German press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer AG has announced the sale of four 4-by-1 KBA Commander presses to Italy's leading media group, Rizzoli Corriere della Sera, which will use them to produce a variety of tabloid products.

Each press line will be configured with four automatic reelstands, automatic reel handling, four nine-cylinder satellite towers for four-over-four color, a folder superstructure with two formers and patented ribbon-splitting system, and one 2:5:5 jaw folder.

Printing eight full-color pages per tower, the 4-by-1 version of the Commander combines the advantages of two-page increments and half the plate consumption of a two-around press running straight with the precise color register afforded by the common-impression nine-cylinder satellite. The 86,000-copy-per-hour Commander offers partially automated plate change.

"The Commander is the flagship of the KBA newspaper brand, and the new sale in Italy brings the flagship brand into the 4-by-1 market," said Gary Owen, vice president, sales and communications, newspapers, for KBA North America.

KBA sold its first 4-by-1 press -- a 70,000cph Prisma -- to McClatchy's Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette two years ago, and the installation went online last month in Bluffton, S.C. (see E&P, December 2004). A second Prisma is slated to come online this spring at Post Publishing, Bangkok, Thailand, which publishes the English-language daily Bangkok Post and Thai business daily Post Today.