One year after announcing their partnership, Koenig & Bauer and Siemens are continuing to develop a new software architecture for the German manufacturer's future offset presses. Initial tests are being conducted on a Rapida 106 prototype.
The goal of this project is to transform the press's main functions into hardware-independent software modules that can be reused across generations of presses or adapted to specific configurations.
Initial tests on a Rapida 106
"We are pushing the boundaries of existing systems and making platform-independent software architectures viable for the printing industry. In doing so, we aim to extend the excellence of our mechanical engineering to the software agility that the coming years will require." , explains Stephen Kimmich, CEO of Koenig & Bauer.
Christian Ziegenbalg, Director of Design at Koenig & Bauer, adds: "Koenig & Bauer is committed to establishing a sustainable software architecture based on modern, standards-compliant programming languages. This is the foundation of our competitiveness and high performance for decades to come. To achieve this, we are relying on the proven flexibility of the sheet-fed offset printing industry so that we can respond agilely to market developments."
Engineers are testing the Rapida 106 offset press, focusing in particular on the control of critical functions such as press and sheet transport synchronization, cleaning programs, and positioning.
See you at Drupa 2028
Development will continue for several more years before the technology is ready for industrial production. In the meantime, the program calls for a series of tests in a production environment. The first automation features resulting from this collaboration are expected to be unveiled at Drupa 2028.
In the longer term, this architecture should also facilitate the integration of production data, predictive maintenance via the myKyana portal, the use of digital twins for virtual commissioning, and the remote activation of certain software features.
