Independent Newspapers Inc., parent of the Delaware State News in Dover, has purchased a double-wide Colora semi-commercial press from KBA North America.

The coldset Colora will be arrayed as one tower of 10 printing couples in H-style frames, KBA said. It will have two KBA Pastostar reelstands with infeed units in line with the press. A 2:3:3 jaw folder will be arranged in a right-angle format to the pressline. The press is scheduled to be installed in early 2004 and go on-edition in May.

Publishes weeklies

In addition to the Delaware State News, INI publishes nearby weekly newspapers in Sussex County and a five-day daily and weekly on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The company also owns newspapers and commercial printing plants in Arizona and Florida.

“We are very pleased with our final press selection,” said Tammy Brittingham, INI’s corporate president. “We considered several excellent proposals, but in the end we felt that the KBA press best suited our current needs and future objectives.”

KBA said the Colora would boast variable web widths, from 12 inches to 50 inches, adjustable in half-inch increments. That will allow INI to print a variety of jobs on the same press platform.

Upgrading 6-by-2s

Meantime, KBA said it’s adding capabilities to its forthcoming line of 6-by-2 Commander presses.

Two Swiss publishing companies, Tamedia in Zurich and Espace Media Groupe in Bern, will become the first companies to use the new press configuration.

Each press will have 22 towers and configured as nine-cylinder satellites, a popular design in Europe.

The short web paths will let users avoid the risk of fan-out, even with wide webs, KBA said. The vendor is patenting a string of other features aimed at cutting changeover times, maintenance and waste.

KBA has engineered the 6-by-2 with new plate clamps designed to eliminate vibration and streaking. A new turner-bar system, meanwhile, allows quarter- or half-webs to be transferred to a different former and ribbons to be allocated to adjacent formers.

The new Commanders will be installed in 2004.