The red carpet was rolled out as Jim Hammer, President of Hammer Packaging, and his executive team and employees welcomed Koenig & Bauer President and CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann – who arrived from Germany to Hammer Packaging’s headquarters in Rochester, New York. Bolza-Schünemann was especially interested to inspect the new KBA Rapida 106 41-inch, 8-colour press on Hammer’s pressroom floor, which was installed in July 2017, and how its unique features are assisting Hammer and its customers. Features of the Rapida 106 (which is being used primarily for synthetic substrates) that are already making an impact include Flying JobChange up to 20,000 sheets per hour, a press that’s ideal for plastic, foil, in-mold foil printing and lightweight paper markets, and much faster changeovers with higher press speeds. “It’s always a pleasure of mine to visit a Koenig and Bauer customer and see first-hand the excellent work that they’re producing,” said Bolza-Schünemann. “Our goal is to provide our customers with the most effective and unique technology to allow them to compete in the marketplace and set themselves above their competition.” With the installation, Hammer is working hand-and-hand with its customers, explaining how it’s pioneering a new generation of offset printing. This new configuration is yet another unique layout to its portfolio of presses, said the company, and “is making Hammer truly one-of-a-kind.”
“We’re particularly excited that no one in our marketplace has this press configuration,” Hammer added. “We’ve configured a press that provides us with fast changeovers and higher press speeds. It offers a larger format that will greatly benefit some of our layouts. Plus, it’s equipped with Flying JobChange technology. This new North American feature for cut-and-stack label applications allows our operators to change plates on one or more printing units while the press is running. This provides much higher than normal overall throughput of jobs, making us even more efficient and productive. It also allows us to produce print runs even faster as our customers condense their lead times. We feel that this new capability will be a boon for our customers, who can take advantage of this new feature for recipes, promotions and semi-variable data.” With plastic printing, foil printing, in-mold foil printing, and lightweight paper markets strategically growing for Hammer, the new KBA press allows them to be more competitive in the marketplace. This is especially true when producing labels on synthetic substrates.
Hammer Packaging, established in 1912 and headquartered in Rochester, NY, is a privately-held multi-colour packaging printer with expertise in sheetfed offset, web offset, digital and flexography. The company produces high-quality printed labels and package decorations for the global beverage, food, household, health and beauty, and horticulture markets. KBA North America is located in Dallas, Texas, and is a member of the Koenig & Bauer Group – which was established 200 years ago in Würzburg, Germany.
KBA President and CEO Claus Bolza-Schünemann visits Hammer Packaging in New York
