Standard Printing ‘Doubles Down’ with Another Koenig & Bauer Press

When Standard Printing sought a highly efficient solution to maintain support of its key customer base and provide additional growth capacity, the Canton, OH, firm turned to its press partner, Koenig & Bauer (Booth N2443), for a new large-format workhorse at its facility. The new Rapida 164 six-color plus coater answered the continued demand for high-end graphics for packaging and retail applications ranging from litho printed corrugated boxes, to folding cartons, to retail displays and signage.

“We pride ourselves on continuously staying current with the latest technological developments from all manufacturers in our industry,” says Bill Nolan, president of Standard Printing. “As a customer-centric company, we thoughtfully took action to ensure the ultimate in customer support by investing in another large-format offset press from Koenig & Bauer.” 

In today’s aggressive market Standard is always seeking new ways to strengthen its leadership position. The trend line is continued growth in demand for high-end graphics for packaging and retail applications. The new press optimizes Standard’s output, providing higher run speeds and having the capability to run over 90% of the firm’s offset jobs, which typically call for one- to two- Pantone colors per job. It is running as much as possible to leverage its industry leading capabilities, says Nolan.

“The new press has a lot of exciting productivity features that optimizes our throughput,” says Jim Wessels, Standard’s pressroom manager. “For example, we’ve configured the press with Koenig & Bauer’s unique (SRW) simultaneous roller wash on four units, simultaneous plate changing, and a higher running press speed than we’ve ever had before. To enable our press operators to work at maximum capacity, we’ve designed our Rapida with the Koenig & Bauer Plate Ident, which identifies that it’s the correct plate, pre-registers the plates, and automatically pre-sets job information — preventing errors while saving time and money — as well as an in-line sheet inspection system that inspects every sheet. We also added extra drying capabilities in the press delivery, and raised the press to run larger loads to keep up with the higher speeds.”

The new Rapida press joins an existing Koenig & Bauer Rapida 164 at Standard’s 153,000-sqft facility in Canton, where it employs 115 people. It acts as a sister press, and allows Standard to move jobs back and forth as needed.  

“We’re proud of our reputation as a responsive, reliable, and knowledgeable printer,” says Nolan. “We strive to add value through our industry expertise, and by delivering our products on spec and on time. This new press positions our company as a leading offset sheetfed printer.”