The newly designed Rapida 106 X features a high speed of 20,000sph. The press, which bears an eye-catching black and grey body with illuminated glass side panels, offers the highest productivity and optimised production and efficiency for label producers.
With the Rapida 106 X, Koenig & Bauer is unveiling a new high-performance sheetfed offset press for the medium format 740 x 1060mm. It meets every conceivable demand that today’s market makes of a press in terms of automation, digitisation and workflow solutions, thereby making it the latest in a line of trendsetting developments defining the future of industrial offset.
To avoid wasting even a second during makeready, the Rapida 106 X incorporates a host of pioneering and precisely coordinated features. These range from simultaneous plate changing in less than a minute with unbent and process-free plates to a multitude of parallel makeready processes and also includes autonomous printing of a whole sequence of jobs with automatic activation of the good-sheet counter (AutoRun). At this level of automation, the Rapida 106 X is truly a perfect automatic printing system.
As soon as the sheet counter reaches the specified run length for the current job, the impression is thrown off and the Rapida 106 X automatically begins the job changeover. Once makeready is completed, printing resumes for the next job without any intervention by the operator. The measuring and control systems detect when the specified print quality has been attained and re-activate the sheet counter. After printing the required number of sheets for the second job, the press switches back into job changeover mode. This process is then repeated as often as is necessary to complete the whole sequence of jobs.
The solution offers up to 50 percent productivity gains derived from the complete label workflow production. ‘With the growing demand for labels, we’re accelerating our leading role in this very important market,’ said Chris Travis, director of technology of Koenig & Bauer. ‘This market is one of our main pillars along with commercial and packaging and we’re deeply committed to developing the latest innovations specifically for each market segment.’
The newly redesigned Rapida 106 X offers popular Koenig & Bauer innovations, such as DriveTronic SIS, a side lay free system that allows for accurate registration of thin substrates at maximum speed; QualiTronic PDFCheck, an in-line image inspection system that compares every printed sheet with the PDF data from pre-press; and QualiTronic ColorControl, an in-line colour control system measuring every sheet.
A similarly high level of automation characterises the new PlateTronic plate logistics system. It can be incorporated into the new Rapida 106 X upon request. It has been designed as a modular system and exhibits the versatility to adapt to the requirements of each individual print company.
From job preparation in the PPS system LogoTronic Professional to plate exposure and delivery up to the designated printing units on the press, as well as the removal of the old plates, the process is completed without any manual intervention whatsoever. Assignment of the plates to the individual printing units is managed by the logistics system, meaning that the order in which the plates actually reach the press can be varied as required. The Koenig & Bauer logistics system guides the plates directly into the plate changers. The operator’s work consists solely of process monitoring.
Koenig & Bauer
https://www.koenig-bauer.com/
