Rondo Ganahl AG has invested €36m in its St. Ruprecht site in the Austrian province of Styria, culminating in the inauguration of one of the most modern print centres for corrugated packaging in Europe. One important machine in the production hall is a new six-colour Koenig & Bauer Rapida 164 sheetfed offset press with inline coater and extended delivery.
Left to right: Robert Posch (Technical Manager at the St. Ruprecht plant); Udo Nachbaur (Head of Technology for Ganahl AG); Hubert Marte (CEO of Ganahl AG); Reinhard Marschall (Koenig & Bauer); and Otto Schweinzer (Managing Director of the Rondo plant in St. Ruprecht).
The new Rapida 164 handles sheets up to a maximum format of 1,205 × 1,640mm at speeds of up to 16,000 sheets/hr. The press incorporates a microflute accessory package for the handling of corrugated board up to a thickness of 1.7 mm. To enable uninterrupted, high-speed production with heavy and rigid substrates, it has also been placed on a foundation raised by one metre and integrated into a fully automatic pile logistics system. This has given the new print centre in St. Ruprecht the capacity for an additional 20 million sqm of corrugated board per year.
The press is in many ways as special as the products it prints and has been tailored to Rondo’s precise requirements – from installation with a special gallery and integrated plate trolley lift to a water-cooling system, as well as underfloor logistics for palletless pile transport.
The Rapida 164 also boasts numerous automation solutions: PlateStretch to compensate paper stretching at the press of a button from the ErgoTronic console, the sidelay-free infeed DriveTronic SIS, FAPC plate changers and CleanTronic washing systems. Inking unit temperature control ensures constant printing conditions irrespective of the run length, production speed or hall temperature. Special ink ducts simplify the use of UV and other special inks.
