RR Donnelley lauds 'powerful' technology partnership with KBA

RR Donnelley president and chief executive Thomas Quinlan lauded the partnership between the print giant and KBA, which has produced a fully fledged inkjet web press in a little over a year.

Quinlan and RR Donnelley president, digital solutions and chief technology officer Mary Lee Schneider saw the RotaJet 76 in action this week on the KBA stand (Hall 16, stand C47).

Quinlan said: "The collaboration we’ve had with the KBA research and development team is so vital – together we’re more powerful in delivering solutions to customers than either one of us is alone. This is truly a case of one plus one equalling three."

KBA president and chief executive Claus Bolza-Schünemann added: "We certainly gained a lot of knowledge and high-tech components from RR Donnelley, both hardware and software.

"Our joint goal in February last year was to have a complete product for Drupa 2012. And here we are. We are printing and everyone can take the sample prints."

Schneider said the RotaJet 76 had combined ingredients from both companies: "We like to say we have a press that was made by a printer, for printers. It’s a great fit and a wonderful marriage.

"KBA has done some things to the press that we learned about when we looked at our own version. We’ll incorporate KBA’s dryer and their paper transport – they’re world class," she added.

The RotaJet 76 has a 782mm wide web and uses RR Donnelley’s ProteusJet technology implementation, which is based on Kyocera inkjet heads.

During daily demonstrations at Drupa the 150m/min machine is producing two different 48pp four-colour jobs, one with an offset printed cover with inkjet numbering.