Installations News
KBA Retrofits Metroland’s Web Presses

KBA North America has worked with Toronto’s Metroland newspaper operation to retrofit two reelstands, in addition to a retrofit of the motion control and drives in one of four printing towers in the pressroom. Metroland is one of Canada’s largest community media companies with operations in newspapers, digital properties, flyer distribution, printing, consumer shows, magazines, directories and online commerce.

During the month-long installation, KBA worked hand-in-hand with the newspaper’s production team. KBA’s web service retrofit/rebuild program is designed to provide preventative changeover installation from drive components from AMK and BRC on an existing web offset press and replaces them with new enhanced technology.

“We print over 100 community newspapers with over 125 editions that span from London in southwest Ontario to Ottawa in the northeast, with concentration around Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area,” said Wayne Savage, Maintenance Supervisor at Metroland Media. “It’s imperative that we need reliable running equipment.

“The drives control all of the press’ components,” continued Savage. “We knew we had to quickly make a decision to ensure that the press continued its production. When we realized that replacement drives were no longer available, we turned to KBA.”

The KBA team delivered the new AMK reelstands and BRC motion control and drives to the Metroland Toronto newspaper pre-assembled and ready to be mounted and re-wired. “At KBA we are able to audit, analyze, and recommend programs to our customers and even non-customers to increase output and quality,” said Stefan Prohaska, Director of Customer Service at KBA North America. “Asset condition and reliability is key to dependable production and delivering products on time.”