COUNTDOWN TO DRUPA: KOENIG & BAUER

More than 50 per cent of the print systems manufactured by German press giant Koenig & Bauer are for packaging, and drupa will see the full range of the company’s solutions on show.

The stand will include offset, flexo and digital presses, which are manufactured in 11 different locations by some of the 5500 staff at the €1.3bn turnover business.

The Rapida 106 X will be on the stand; it is a highly automated 20,000sph press with simultaneous plate changing, automated pile logistics, and a host of software upgrades. The half size (B2) Rapida has all the features and automation functions seen in B1 presses. These include full preset capabilities, a sidelay-free infeed and, says Koenig & Bauer, its flexible configurations means the format class can cater for “all segments and levels of job complexity”.

Growth areas for Koenig & Bauer are in postpress, in digital printing, in corrugated printing, and in flexo printing. President of the company, Dr Andreas Plesske, said, “We are committed to digital, it will become a volume business. Packaging is set for continued upswing.”

New for drupa is workflow software PrintFusion, which has been developed in partnership with Hybrid Software. Also new in software will be MyKyana, which will provide data to enable data driven decisions and solutions.

In finishing there is a swag of new solutions being launched. There will be a new rotary die-cutter, the Cut ProX, which the company says will be the world’s fastest. There will be a new flatbed die cutter, the Cut ProQ, and a new folder gluer system.

The company will show its joint venture VariJet 106 digital carton press, and the Delta SPC103 and Corrujet 170 digital corrugated presses.

There will be no newspaper presses on show, with Plesske revealing that the former €1bn part of its business was now down to one press a year, in a good year.