French printers pick up Rapidas

Imprimerie de Champagne and Imprimerie Escourbiac order KBA’s Rapida 142 and 105 straight from the stand

French printer Imprimerie de Champagne, a Graphicom Group subsidiary based in Landres, has snapped up the Rapida 142 eight-colour perfector press on the KBA stand at drupa.

The company will take delivery of the eight-colour machine directly after the show. While Imprimerie de Champagne already runs KBA sheetfed presses, this one will open up new dimensions as it can print as many as 128 pages per sheet in one pass. "We are aiming to move ahead of the curve," says Henri Gironcourt, general manager of the 100-staff firm. Four-backing-four in the widespread B1 (41in) format is no longer sufficient, and Imprimerie de Champagne already has a brace of Rapida 105 eight-colour perfectors in operation.
The new Rapida 142 will soon be pumping out more prints than both these presses combined. Imprimerie de Champagne prints ­instruction manuals, books and
a large volume of magazine titles, including the Graphicom Group's Journal de Haute Marne.

Meanwhile, the five-colour Rapida 105 on KBA's stand will be packed off to French printer Imprimerie Escourbiac near Toulouse. It will be the second medium-format Rapida that owner Philippe Escourbiac is installing in his press room. put and advanced level of automation.