Tech Tips

How Often to Maintain a New Press

Tech Tip #81 (for printer version, click here)

In the past 5 years and even more in the past two years the operating speed of presses has increased dramatically. The number of hours per week we are running presses in many plants has also increased dramatically. A third factor that has occurred is that presses are getting longer i.e. more units. The fourth factor that has changed is that presses are becoming more and more electronic.

How do we now deal with this since we normally allowed four hours of maintenance per week for a six color press?

To cope and adjust with the four changes listed above we need to do several items. The first is to devote more time to maintenance. This does not necessarily more hours down. It does mean managing time well during the week to take advantage of every waiting time be that for plates or customers. It also means doing some maintenance during the run where appropriate and safe. It means when the press is down to have all available press personnel work on the press.

To maximize your uptime for major equipment from an electrical point of view remote service is necessary and in my opinion is cheap. Trying to troubleshoot the electronics on a major press is very difficult. Having the help of the manufacturer online to look at the press 24/7 is a real time saver.