Fishprint smartens up with Australia's first KBA Genius press

Installation of KBA Genius 52UV press keeps Melbourne business, Fishprint, swimming upstream in its use of waterless printing.

The environmentally conscious printer first caught sight of the Genius 52UV at last year’s PacPrint show. KBA-Metronic's Australian distributor Jet Technologies exhibited the machine at its stand, and noted strong interest from the crowd.

According to Fishprint manager, Peter Booth, the machine offers new innovations in offset printing and allows them to enter a niche where the company could distance itself from the competition.

Pictured: Instructor Helmut Herbert from KBA-Metronic AG delivers Genius 52UV after installation and training to director of Fishprint, Peter Booth.

"We've been looking for ways to print on extravagant substrates such as magnetic foils, foil stickers, plastic cards and plastic tags, mouse pads or environmentally friendly table mats as well as normal jobbing work for a long time,” he said.

“The Genius 52UV is the ideal printing machine for such applications. It only needs a small amount of floor space and can print up to five different colours. The fifth printing unit can also be used for UV varnishes. Printed materials dry instantly and are immediately ready to be further processed or shipped. The machine is easy to operate and prints up to 8,000 sheets per hour. The automatic plate inserters position the plates so precisely that we rarely have to correct the registration of the four process colours.”

The machine, which boasts a number of features including printing with UV inks that cure in the delivery segment of the printing press, immediately after printing, is expected to prove a hit in Australia.

Jim Everitt, sales manager at Jet Technologies, confirmed that a second machine has already been sold to a Queensland company and will be launched soon. “The second machine is waiting for installation as we speak,” he said.