On the 26th and 27th October, KBA Italia organised a demonstration of the production capacity of the new five-colour printing press KBA Performa 74 at the premises of its Turin customer Grafica 5. This encounter with clients provided an opportunity to demonstrate printing and the operations carried out when changing to a new printing-job and also to get more closely acquainted with KBA's small offset press. One presentation of special interest was the demonstration of the application of Huber MetalFX inks for achieving metallic shades without varnishing.

On the 26th and 27th October, KBA Italia organised a demonstration of the production capacity of the new five-colour printing press KBA Performa 74 at the premises of its Turin customer Grafica 5

KBA Performa 74 is a sheet-fed offset press of 520x740 mm format which was presented at the last Grafitalia exhibition. Its technology, performance and printing quality attain a high level with a good quality/price ratio and high productivity while requiring a single operator. The design is highly compact, a four-colour machine is a mere 7.1 m long and is even suitable for limited spaces.

The printing market is experiencing a transformation in small companies specialising in small editions. Besides offset printing, they are also introducing digital printing in small and large formats, so that they can offer a full range of services to various customers, from design agencies and offices to small and medium-sized companies or businesses. Requirements are changing, new technologies are being introduced and productivity increased, but the essence of the work remains unchanged - what is required of printers is high quality for competitive prices, flexibility in job processing and speed in adjusting to the ever-shortening delivery deadlines.

Grafica 5 represents these trends. Although it has been founded only recently, it has under its belt the long-term experiences of a print shop (TCG) that has decided to become a modern printing company capable of offering a full service specialising in small editions. That became the basis for choosing the five-colour press KBA Performa 74. The reasons are clear, as explains Maurizio Merlo who runs the company together with his father Aldo: "We were looking for a 500 x 700 mm format, latest generation, powerful and flexible machine, suitable for small editions of high quality. We examined all options even among used machines and chose KBA for its technical characteristics, high printing quality and favourable ratio of quality, performance and price."

The client base of Grafica 5 consist mainly of design offices and advertising agencies but there is also a large number of direct clients: the company has learned how to proceed to become known as a reliable and high-quality supplier of small and medium runs. Four years ago it was decided at the print shop to add digital printing to offset printing. "Our goal is a perfect integration of both printing technologies," says Maurizio Merlo, "so that we can perform all types of processing, from ten to ten thousand copies, always with the same quality."

KBA Performa 74 is a sheet-fed offset press of 520x740 mm format which was presented at the last Grafitalia exhibition. Its technology, performance and printing quality attain a high level with a good quality/price ratio and high productivity while requiring a single operator

Performa 74: technical data

520 x 740 mm format sheet-fed offset press, in configurations from two to six colours and optional perfector, compact - 1.81 m high and 1.6 wide (the four-colour version is just 7.1 m long), impression cylinders in the "seven o'clock" position, remote control of ink ducts, semi-automatic insertion of printing plates, setting of axial, radial and diagonal register from the control panel. Automatic washer of plate cylinder and inking units, optional Anilox coating tower equipped with the system supplied by Harris & Bruno, drying (IR or UV) and extended delivery. Control panel GrafiControl with a touch-screen for remote control of the machine. CIP4 workflow compatible.