A dryer is being teamed with KBA’s waterless technology in a new installation for a Norwegian publisher.

Polaris Trykk in Trondheim will install the highly automated 48pp Cortina press to expand options for its customers. Scheduled to go live in autumn 2014, the waterless press will replace two existing KBA Express lines which in 1997 replaced three earlier sections dating back to 1978.

Polaris itself dates to the 1767 foundation of Adresseavisen, now the country’s oldest newspaper.

The Trondheim is the group’s largest. The others are in Ålesund, Harstad and Alta, and Polaris also half-owns a plant in Orkanger. Trondheim prints Adresseavisen and Trönder-Avisa as well as part of the runs of national dailies Verden Gang, Dagbladet, Dagens Näringsliv and Aftenposten, with inserts and other commercial products produced in the afternoon.

The Cortina will have a cylinder circumference of 1120 mm, a 560 mm cut-off and a maximum web width of 1600 mm. It will be capable of delivering 48 broadsheet or 96 tabloid pages, all in full colour, at 40,000 cph. Equipment includes Patras A paper logistics, three Pastomat A reelstands and a KBA stripping station. Three compact towers have automatic plate changing and blanket washing, roller locks and, pushbutton pressure setting. A 13 metre hot-air dryer has an internal thermal after-burning unit. In addition, the KF5 2:5:5 jaw folder in the superstructure is equipped with two formers, a gluer, three ribbon stitchers and a ribbon splitting device. Length and cross perforation, a section stitcher and a quarterfold support high flexibility and a broad product range. With tabloid products popular, the ribbon splitter allows webs to be guided unturned over both formers, and the slit ribbons then to be assigned flexibly to three ribbon stitchers. There are plans to add a further reelstand, printing tower and folder at a later date.