Review of the 16th Cortina User Workshop in St. Gallen
Extensive programme on the challenges of waterless printing
Operational advantages of the waterless Cortina still effective today
Last Cortina User Workshop with Peter Benz
After a two-year break due to the pandemic, Cortina users and partners from the supply industry from all over the world came together again this year. At the 16th Cortina User Workshop in St. Gallen, they exchanged experiences on waterless offset printing. The conference also marked the farewell of Peter Benz, the "father" of the popular event series.
Prior to this year's Cortina User Workshop, the visitors were able to comment on their current experiences. On this basis Koenig & Bauer put together an extensive and varied programme of analyses and innovations for the 100 or so participants over the two days. The focus was on changes at Koenig & Bauer, but also on insights from the supply industry and challenges in the marketplace. Many presentations brought lively discussions, which once again underlined the importance of such a personal exchange. In future, the workshop is to be supplemented by round-table working groups.
Among the topics reported and discussed were predictive maintenance, new technical innovations around the Cortina, energy-saving possibilities and the new development of pneumatic rubbers, experiences with plate peeling and long-term tests of anilox rollers as well as further developments of printing plates. The programme also included presentations on developments in the paper industry, challenges for ink manufacturers and quality-enhancing processes in newspaper printing with a view to energy and material costs.
A central finding of the two-day event was that the advantages of the waterless Cortina still exist today. For example, a closed-loop colour control solution was implemented at Cortina user Coldset Printing Partners (CPP) in Paal-Beringen in collaboration with Q.I. Press Controls. The presses were installed in 2018 and the IDS-3D closed-loop colour control system was commissioned a year later. The insight from the presentation by Q.I. Press Controls that no other press series is so well suited to closed-loop solutions in the coldset/heatset web sector met with general approval at the Cortina User Workshop.
For Peter Benz, the former Cortina project manager at Koenig & Bauer, it was the last User Workshop. At the turn of the year the Swiss national, known in the industry as "Mr Cortina", retired ⎼ after a professional life dominated by waterless web printing. "Today the Cortina series is a highly developed solution that in my eyes still delivers the optimum between economy, quality and sustainability," said Peter Benz on the sidelines of the event. Georg Zitterbart will follow Peter Benz as the person responsible for the Cortina series. And the User Workshops will also go into a new round in 2023, together with Rodi Media Diemen from the Netherlands as a partner.
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