Koenig & Bauer has opened a new hall, adding more than 3,000 square metres of floor space for print demonstrations at its Radebeul location near Dresden, Germany. The occasion marked the end of a project to expand and upgrade this existing press demonstration facility into a global Customer Experience Centre (CEC). For customers and other interested visitors, the CEC offers about one-third more total space and features the latest equipment for press and machine demonstrations, application testing, development of new technologies and for training purposes. The individual sections will focus on packaging, commercial print and label production.
The Packaging Competence Centre within the CEC will house three packaging lines comprising three printing presses and four post-press machines once it’s fully set up. Koenig & Bauer will then be able to showcase its “one-stop-shop concept for packaging production” – with flatbed and rotary die-cutters, folder-gluers and fully automated material workflows. Meeting areas with direct views of the production lines, workstations to illustrate digital workflow integration, and a full range of modern media equipment will “contribute to an atmosphere conducive to tests, production trials, demonstrations, discussions and negotiations,” said the company. The machinery that’s already installed and ready for demonstrations includes a latest-generation, medium-format sheetfed offset press – a Rapida 106 X with 7 printing units, double-coating technology, an additional printing unit after the first coater, and the coil foil system FoilTronic, as well as an Omega Allpro 110 folder-gluer and a CutPro X 106 rotary die-cutter. The next step will see the addition of a Rapida 145 and a CutPro M 144.
Koenig & Bauer started construction of the new building in the second half of 2018. Since the beginning of the year, the project has continued with the completion of the interior and installation of the machines, which were shown in action for the first time as part of the OEM’s virtual event series “Koenig & Bauer Live” from June 16 – 25, 2020. In the meantime, 3,500 cubic metres of earth had been dug and 520 cubic metres of concrete had been poured. Other key parameters of the building are its 38 pre-cast columns, a roof construction featuring glulam trusses and a span of 35 metres, and 1,300 square metres of cladding. Some 250 LED lights were fitted on mounting tracks with a length of almost 600 metres, 30,000 metres of cabling were routed through the facility, and a photo-voltaic array was installed on the roof. The copmany added that it’s looking forward to intensive use of the new CEC by customers and other visitors from all over the world over the coming weeks.
Koenig & Bauer Sheetfed upgrades press demonstration facility into a global Customer Experience Centre
