The head building of Hall 1 is being completely redesigned. Several individual offices will be consolidated into a modern open-plan office consolidating departments such as prepress, digital printing, and media design. A new meeting room and reception area will also be created on the lower level.
Extensive modernization work is also taking place in the offset and digital printing halls. The two Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106 offset presses are being replaced as part of the regular investment cycle with the latest generation, which was introduced at Drupa last year. Kern continues to rely on the proven combination of a five-colour press with coating unit (including UV coating) and an eight-colour press with perfecting.
As the world's first user, Kern is implementing the new Hycolor Assistant, which uses AI-supported analysis of print data to generate setup recommendations for ink and dampening rollers in the press. This reduces the need for manual intervention, lowers the risk of operator errors, and increases both efficiency and print quality. Kern is also introducing the Digital Infeed System (DIS) for the first time, enabling automatic sheet alignment. In addition, a Mabeg RS106 reel sheeter installed on the eight-colour press now allows web-fed materials to be processed in sheetfed offset printing. This optimizes paper purchasing and improves paper availability, as many grades are more readily available in reel format than as sheets.
In digital printing, a Canon imagePRESS V1350 complements the existing inkjet production systems with a toner-based colour printing system.