Eberle Druck installs KBA Rapida 75 Pro

The 6-color Rapida 75 Pro coater press with extended delivery features 225mm raised foundations to enable higher piles, an enlarged sheet format of 605 x 750mm, central format setting, fully automatic FAPC plate changers, CleanTronic Synchro for parallel washing processes, QualiTronic ColorControl for in-line color measurement and extensive preset capabilities. The Rapida 75 Pro at Eberle Druck is often set up to use several or even exclusively spot colors, with the facility to disengage unused inking units one of the most frequently exploited strengths of the press. In pharmaceutical packaging, up to 60 percent of the inks used are spot colors.

A KBA Rapida 75 went into production at Eberle Druck, a subsidiary of the Rattpack group, back in 2011, handling lightweight paper through to cartonboard. For work on short-run pharmaceutical packaging, however, the job changeover times of the original press were proving too long.

Rattpack plant manager Marco Resch, who is responsible for both the Dornbirn and Vienna locations, explained: ‘For print jobs with an average of 250 to 500 sheets, fast make-ready is much more valuable than a high production speed.’

The Rapida 75 Pro was launched at drupa 2016, and commissioned at Eberle Druck in mid-June 2016. After just eight months on stream, figures show that the investment in the Rapida 75 Pro has paid off, with shortened make-ready times, down from 15-20 minutes to five minutes, boosting productivity by around 30 percent. The larger sheet format means almost twice as many blanks can be accommodated on each sheet. Further, QualiTronic ColorControl has achieved ‘significant’ reductions in waste.

Within the Rattpack Group, Eberle is responsible for the production of folding cartons for pharmaceuticals packaging, patient information leaflets and other special products for the pharmaceuticals industry.

In addition to the original Rapida 75, Eberle Druck has been able to decommission a second press, with the Rapida 75 Pro handling the jobs that used to run on both presses.