Report 36 d,e,f,s,i.qxd:Report - KBA

Healthy expansion from half- to medium format
Gráfica Biblos shines with
“Río Amazonas” and Rapidas
In 2007 Lima-based Peruvian print enterprise Gráfica Biblos won the much coveted Benny Award, the highest
accolade bestowed by the PIA (Printing Industries of America) for various printed products in 100 different
categories. In the category “hard cover trade books, journals and other books” Biblos’s entry, a book entitled “Río
Amazonas River – 7,000 km” scooped the award against some 5,000 competitors from all over the world. At the end
of 2008 the company’s first B1 (41in) press, a Rapida 105 universal, launched into action alongside its two existing
B2 (29in) Rapida 72 presses.
Biblos has been in the market
for twenty years. Its foundation
in 1989 by two brothers,
Alfredo and Willy Yoshimoto, coincided
with the fall of the Berlin Wall
in Germany. Initially they offered
print services which they outsourced
to other firms, but in 1991
they installed their first press, a
four-colour SRA2 (25in) model.
Three years later it was joined by a
second four-colour press, this time
a B2 (29in). There followed extensive
investment in pre-press and
finishing kit as the company’s customer
base and order volume grew
along with its capabilities.
From a Rapida 72 to a Rapida 105
universal in ten years
In 1998 the two brothers purchased
a four-colour Rapida 72
which delivered a big boost in print
quality and productivity. Repeated
difficulty in maintaining a ready
supply of imaged plates prompted
them to install the first ctp system
Alfredo Yoshimoto proudly displaying the
Benny Award the company won in 2007 for a
book entitled “Río Amazonas River – 7,000 km”
Alongside the B1 Rapida 105 the company
operates a Rapida 72 six-colour coater press
Gráfica Biblos’s Willy (l) and Alfredo Yoshimoto
with their press crew at the new Rapida 105
universal
in Peru – an Agfa-Galileo UV with
ApogeeX workflow. The result: a reduction
of around 80 per cent in
pre-press preparation time, a much
sharper image and a surge in orders
for hardback anthologies and coffee
table books.
The sheer volume of new
orders created the need to expand
pressroom capacity once again. So
in 2004 Biblos signed up for a Rapida
72 with six printing units and a
coater. This established the company
as the country’s showcase for
modern printing technology. A good
year ago the Yoshimotos installed
their first medium-format press – a
five-colour Rapida 105 universal,
also with a coater. Alongside its bigger
format and an output of 15,000
sheets per hour, the new Rapida’s
automatic plate changing, Ergo-
Tronic ACR (video register) and
DensiTronic measuring and control
system delivered a further huge
productivity boost. Automatic washing
systems for the impression
cylinders, blanket cylinders and inking
rollers have vastly improved the
working environment for the press
crew by reducing both labour input
and emissions. With the CIP3 workflow,
initial ink-key presetting values
are a 90 per cent match with
the proof.
New premises provide
greater capacity
Early last year Gráfica Biblos moved
into new company premises which
are just a few minutes from Peru’s
financial centre, giving it 3,200m²
(34,500ft²) of floor space for prepress,
press and post-press production.
106 employees work two
twelve-hour shifts producing catalogues,
non-fiction and school
books, diaries, travel guides and a
lot more besides. The plant consumes
up to 1,000 tonnes (1,100
US tons) of paper per year. At present
Biblos is busy expanding its
publishing arm with the aim of promoting
its own products not only
on the domestic market but also in
Central America and on the West
Coast of the United States.
Martin Dänhardt
martin.daenhardt@kba.com
Sheetfed Offset | Peru
Report 36 | 2010 15