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Italy may be experiencing a prolonged post-crisis recession that has impacted severely on investment in the print media industry, but there are a few cheering exceptions. Rome-based Editorial, part of the Colasanto Group, recently placed an order with Koenig & Bauer (KBA) for a customised Colora tower press that will give it much greater flexibility in printing its many titles. Instead of the usual four plates across the cylinder width the two-around press has just three, ie six per plate cylinder. So one tower can print 12 broadsheet or 24 tabloid pages per impression, the entire press line 36 broadsheet or 72 tabloid pages. The Colora is scheduled to come on stream at a contract printing plant in Medicina, approximately 30km east of Bologna, at the end of the year.
The Colasanto Group prints some 40 international, national and local newspaper titles plus diverse weeklies and monthlies. In addition to Bologna the printing group operates plants near Milan, Rome and Naples (Benevento). It thus has facilities at convenient transport hubs affording quick and inexpensive access to domestic publishers’ distribution areas throughout Italy. For greater customer proximity in central Europe Colasanto also has three production plants in Belgium – one to the north and two to the south of Brussels.
Said Michele Colasanto, head of the Colasanto Group, ‘We are delighted with the KBA Continent that came on stream in 2005 at our plant in Oricola-Carsoli, near Rome. Of the twenty-odd presses we operate within the Group, most of which are two-across and one-around, the KBA is by the far the best in terms of print quality, output and production flexibility. This, and our highly successful relationship with Koenig & Bauer, are what prompted us to invest in a second KBA newspaper press, especially since the new one is custom-engineered.’
Well geared for the future
The floor-mounted 3/2 KBA Colora will primarily print tabloid copies and is engineered for the 620mm cut-off currently most common in Italy. It has a maximum web width of 1,350mm and a maximum rated output of 75,000cph. It will comprise three KBA Pastomat reelstands with Patras M reel handling, three four-high towers, a KBA KF 3 jaw folder with a two-former superstructure. The press will be controlled from one EAE console with diagnostics PC for online remote maintenance.
Said Colasanto, ‘This configuration will afford much greater flexibility in meeting the needs of our print customers. As well as six single plates it can accept two full-width plates.’
Pictured above: The 3/2 KBA Colora for Editorial underscores KBA’s pole position in the Italian newspaper market. This first press line in 3/2 configuration is scheduled to go into operation at the end of the year.
© Graphic Repro On-line, 27 July 2010.
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