Toyo Ink Europe Takes On Offset: Training at Koenig & Bauer

Last week, our sales teams at Toyo Ink Europe embarked on a colourful and educational journey lead by the technical team at Koenig & Bauer at their facility in Dresden.
The goal? To master the art of offset printing and the latest innovation of presses equipped with cutting-edge LED and UV lamp technology. Our group, armed with our own inks and enthusiasm, dove headfirst into the hands-on training, eager to learn from the seasoned pros at Koenig & Bauer.

Prepping for Success

After a warm welcome and a safety briefing, it was time to get down to business to familiarize ourselves with the entire process of offset printing, from prepping and checking our files to setting up the press with our inks, to the actual printed final. Under the guidance of our Koenig & Bauer trainers, we learned how to prepare our design files and the process of converting them into printing plates. Once we had our plates ready, it was time to load them onto the machine, making sure the plates were assigned to the correct colour on the press. Of course this experience wasn’t complete without our team applying our very own S5 LED-inks to the press to get the print made. . Working alongside the Koenig & Bauer experts, we tweaked the machine settings, optimized the ink density, and mastered the registration process.

Seeing our inks colours applied to such high-tech machinery felt like watching a recipe we’d perfected come to life. With the LED lamps inserted in the Koenig & Bauer press, we got to see the rapid drying process in action— and we got to see the instant results, without waiting around for things to dry!

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Teamwork, Tech, and a Little Ink on Our Hands

While the technical learning was top-notch, the real highlight was the camaraderie. Working together as a team and learning form one another’s experiences was ink-credibly rewarding. The Koenig & Bauer team was fantastic, walking us through every detail on how their presses have evolved into the high-quality and high-speed presses they make today It’s one thing to learn these concepts in theory, but having the chance to physically insert the plates, apply the ink and adjust the settings on the press gave us a new level of confidence in our craft. Even if some of us got a little more ink on their hands than others!

Looking Ahead: What’s Next?

Armed with newfound knowledge and inspiration, we’re excited to bring everything we learned back home. The ability to run Offset jobs with precision and efficiency, using our own inks, the K&B press and our newfound expertise, has us fired up for the future. With LED and UV technology under our belts, we’re ready to push the boundaries of what’s possible in the printing industry. 
We hope to keep learning as we go, and stay updated on all the latest developments and technologies in our continuously evolving segment. We’ll be putting our newly minted skills to the test—and are ready to go out into the field and apply our newfound knowledge to help our customers even better than before!

Big thanks to Tobias Wieland and Stefan Splett for this wonderful experience!

Foto SSP