Rollstands

Newsprint begins its journey through the press from the rollstand at the end of the press line. Press employees use a special track to bring paper from storage to each of the four rollstands, each one providing paper to two stacked press units.

The towers

Each press tower comprises two units -- one stacked on top of the other. Each tower weighs in excess of 40 tons and is capable of producing eight pages in full color. The towers stand about 20 feet high, well below the 28-foot ceiling in the Wilfred R. Woods Production Facility.

Paper trail

Paper feeds from the rollstands through the tower from the bottom and travels up through the four printing couples (two couples in each unit).

Safety

Metal catwalks allow press operators access to the upper units to perform routine maintenance. The World's KBA Comet press has two levels of catwalk to allow workers to safely do routine maintenance on the eight units.

The folder

All of the units feed paper to the jaw-type folder, which folds and cuts the paper. It is capable of handling 65,000 copies per hour. The jaw folder produces substantially higher-quality folds than the traditional rotary folder. The World has also installed a quarter-folder, which allows booklets (approximately 8" by 10") to be printed. Once the papers pass through the folder, they are transported to the packaging center by a system of conveyors.

Koenig & Bauer

The Comet is manufactured by Koenig & Bauer (KBA), a family-owned business based in Wurzburg, Germany. KBA has been in existence for over 185 years and is in its seventh generation of family ownership. The first KBA Comet in North America was installed in Wenatchee in November, 1999. Since that time other KBA Comet presses have been installed around the country. KBA is the world-wide leader in the sale of currency presses, with more than 90 percent of the world's paper money being produced on KBA equipment.

Control room

Starting the press and making fine adjustments to registration, as well as adjusting the levels of ink and water/fountain solution are handled in the control, or quiet, room, so called because it is completely enclosed. Making adjustments in the control room saves the press crew from having to run to individual units to make changes to improve the quality of the print.

Ink control

Ink is preset on the press using information from the digital (PDF) computer file supplied by the customer. This presetting allows for much better quality and less waste. The Wenatchee World was the first company in the world to take advantage of the CIP3 presetting processes on a two-around-plate-cylinder type web press.

Automatic splicing

The rollstands are equipped with splicers that automatically cut the roll of paper, or "web" and paste a fresh roll when the previous roll of paper is about to run out. This system results in a significant savings of time - enabling us to even more cost effective on longer press runs.

Sitting on air

The towers sit on airlocks which can be adjusted to make sure that the press units are lined up, ensuring consistent high-quality reproduction.

Four colors make all colors

Full-color reproduction is achieved by applying four colors, starting with cyan (a blue) followed by magenta (a red), yellow and finally, black. The Comet is capable of producing 32 pages of full color in a single broadsheet press run.

Electronic controls

Another safety feature is that press operators will be doing a lot less work on the units themselves while the press is running, because all of the controls on the Comet are electronic.

Commercial printing

Printing our daily newspaper isn't the only job that is handled by the KBA Comet. The superior quality and unprecedented color capacity makes this press ideal for producing high-quality printing jobs. The World currently prints many products for various businesses, organizations and government agencies. or more information about our commercial printing capabilities or a no obligation print quote please contact our Production Director, Stephen Schroeder, at 509-664-7127.

Strong foundation

Building a foundation for a printing press is a complicated process. Geotechnical engineers had to design the foundation to withstand 7,000-lbs-per-square-inch pressure to handle the 300 tons of press as well as compensate for the vibration of the machinery. The foundation, which weighs about 700 tons, includes four feet of concrete in which are buried about 40 tons of 1 1/4-inch rebar. The press foundation is level to within the thickness of a dime from one end to the other -- a distance of about 135 feet.

Shaftless technology

The KBA Comet offset press uses shaftless technology, one of the breakthrough advances in high-quality printing. In a shafted press, like most other web presses on the market, all of the units are connected by shafts: turn one cylinder and they all revolved. With a shaftless press, each unit is propelled by its own motor. Being able to manipulate each unit individually allows the press operator to achieve consistently higher print quality.