In December 2007 a big KBA Continent hybrid coldset/heatset press line with ten four-high towers, two thermal air dryers, sixteen reelstands and three folders set off from KBA’s Würzburg production plant on its long journey to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. In the new year it will be installed at a new printing plant built by United Printing & Publishing (UPP) on the main route to Dubai and will later be linked with a nine-year-old Compacta 213 that will run alongside. Together the two press lines will boast a total production capacity of 112 broadsheet or 224 tabloid pages, of which 48 broadsheet or 96 tabloid pages can be printed in full colour. A 16-page KBA Compacta 215 commercial web press that came on stream at UPP in spring 2007 will also be relocated to the new printing plant, which when completed will be among the biggest in the Middle East.
The new press line, which weighs in at several hundred tonnes, involves a lot more installation and commissioning work than a 1.65t historical stop-cylinder press with counterweight drive that KBA presented to UPP to commemorate the two companies’ longstanding and successful business relationship. The 160-year-old press will ship in mid-December and take pride of place in the foyer of the new printing plant. It will provide visitors with a glimpse of what mechanical printing was like in the early days, when it entailed lead type and sweated labour – a far cry from today’s electronics and digital data transfer via the internet. In 1848, when the press was built, Koenig & Bauer had been in business for just 31 years but had already shipped hundreds of presses. Last August the world’s oldest press manufacturer celebrated its 190th jubilee.
During a recent visit by a UPP delegation to Würzburg, KBA marketing director Klaus Schmidt ceremoniously handed over the historic stop-cylinder press to Ali Saif Al Nueaimi of United Printing & Publishing (UPP), Baha'a El Din El Talle of Mubadala and Najib Awad of Giffin Graphics, KBA’s agency for the UAE.
The new press line, which weighs in at several hundred tonnes, involves a lot more installation and commissioning work than a 1.65t historical stop-cylinder press with counterweight drive that KBA presented to UPP to commemorate the two companies’ longstanding and successful business relationship. The 160-year-old press will ship in mid-December and take pride of place in the foyer of the new printing plant. It will provide visitors with a glimpse of what mechanical printing was like in the early days, when it entailed lead type and sweated labour – a far cry from today’s electronics and digital data transfer via the internet. In 1848, when the press was built, Koenig & Bauer had been in business for just 31 years but had already shipped hundreds of presses. Last August the world’s oldest press manufacturer celebrated its 190th jubilee.
During a recent visit by a UPP delegation to Würzburg, KBA marketing director Klaus Schmidt ceremoniously handed over the historic stop-cylinder press to Ali Saif Al Nueaimi of United Printing & Publishing (UPP), Baha'a El Din El Talle of Mubadala and Najib Awad of Giffin Graphics, KBA’s agency for the UAE.
