Semi-commercial Excellence with New KBA Comet
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On 3 March longstanding KBA customer Oceano held an open house at its printing plant in Cajamar, near São Paulo, to promote its new KBA Comet, whose heatset capability enables it to print tabloids, school textbooks and magazines alongside newspapers. During the event, which was organised with the support of KBA's Brazilian agency, Deltagraf Representações Comerciais, and attended by over 100 representatives from the Brazilian newspaper industry, the single-wide press printed a heatset magazine on 65gsm (43lb book) stock.
Reaffirmation of association with KBA
After welcoming his guests Hercilio de Lourenzi moved on to the focus of the event, the KBA Comet installed last autumn. This, and a second, identical Comet at another group production plant down south in Criciúma, underscore Oceano's impressive growth and are the culmination of a close and highly successful association between Oceano and KBA dating back to 1997 and the installation of a 16pp Compacta 215 commercial web offset press. It was followed in subsequent years by three more presses of the same type, two 48-page KBA Compacta 618s and several KBA litho presses.
KBA sales director Kai Trapp thanked Oceano's executives and staff for their confidence in KBA and their exemplary collaboration on this latest project. He said: "At such a difficult time as this for the print media industry, which is still experiencing the aftermath of the global economic and financial crisis, publishers and printers face severe challenges. Oceano's investment in the two Comets is the right move. They are the perfect addition to its existing fleet of presses for the cost-effective, high-quality and environmentally friendly production of books, advertising inserts and magazines."
Oceano a major player in Brazil
Oceano is a subsidiary of Grupo Escala, which evolved from Editora Escala, a publishing house launched by Hercilio de Lourenzi in 1992 and now one of Brazil's biggest media operations. Oceano started out with just one secondhand press in the heart of São Paulo, but soon became established in the Brazilian market, not least through continuous investment in new technology. Today Editora Escala and Oceano have a combined payroll of 1,200 and three production plants pumping out over 200 magazine titles with a total monthly circulation of 40 million copies, plus inserts and textbooks. More than 8,500 tonnes of paper are processed every month.
Globally proven quality with KBA Comet
The KBA Comet is a one-across, two-around tower press that is in operation the world over. It can print both newspapers and, with the addition of a thermal air dryer and associated extras, semi-commercials. The Comets at Oceano have a cylinder circumference of 1156mm (45.5in), a maximum web width of 1000mm (39.37in) and a maximum rated output of 75,000cph. Each press is configured with a Pastoline reelstand linked to a Patras M manual reel-handling system, and comprises one four-high tower for four colours B/B, with bustle wheels and colour-register controls to ensure a high standard of image quality, and automatic cylinder washing for faster job changes. In addition to the heatset package with overhead hot-air dryers and chill-roller stand, press specifications included a double turner bar with one former in the superstructure, a KF 3 jaw folder with semi-commercial capability and high-tech consoles with production scheduling software and RIP interface.
