Age of Printing Presses

Heidelberg Used Printing Presses One thing you want to think about is the age of a press. I mention this not to get you to focus on the age, but to overcome the misconceptions about it. DO NOT allow the purported “year” of a machine to influence your decision making. First of all, just about every machine, ever sold, had a misrepresented year. People don’t know the years; it could be represented as newer than it is or older than it is. It’s just a fact of the business.

Furthermore, dealers have gotten savvier regarding this and plop the word, “circa” on their contracts. That word means, “on or about”. If you see the word “circa” on a contract then you know they year is incorrect. Why else would they put it there?

The second thing about the year is that it is not that important. Perception is always greater than reality. That is why so many press dealers misrepresent this fact when selling a machine. They know buyers are focused on it and that lets you play right into their hands. You do however; want to be clear about the vintage of that press. This will tell you more about it than the year. Here is an example of how people get into to trouble focusing on what they think is the year.

You have narrowed your search down to two machines. Both are from reputable dealers, similar money, and similar conditions.

Press A is represented as a 1995, Press B is represented as a 1994. The reality is Press A is really a 1994, and Press B is really a 1995. You decide that you want to buy Press A because you like the sound of 1995, better than the sound of 1994.

Lo and behold after installing the machine on your floor, the pressman opens up the electrical door panel and sees a date stamp in there that says 11-06-94. After becoming curious you begin to dig into the situation and find out that the machine is in fact a 1994. You get angry and look at your contract and see “circa 1995”. November of 1994 would certainly meet the definition of “on or about” 1995 in my mind.

You then begin looking into the machines and you find out that in 1995, which press B is, that brand of press had just introduced a new hickey free dampening system. You are now the owner of a machine that you thought was newer, when in fact you just missed out on a great new feature. This happens all the time.

You can also get caught up in the age thing the other way. Why pay more for a machine that is a 1995, when it is really the exact same press, model wise as a 1992. No new features or anything different.

The important thing to focus on is what is it. Machines of this nature are always evolving and have new or different features. You want to be on the right side of the serial number line. A great example of this is when Komori first came out with the Lithrone. The gripper mechanism was of a design that each individual gripper needed to be greased regularly. It turned out to be a poor design and was subsequently redesigned. One machine had the poor design, the next one off the assembly line did not.

The best definitive way to know a machine is to focus on the serial number.
Most of the time the represented age of a press for sale is wrong. It could be newer or older
Age is not as important, or informative as the serial number
Some press lines can go years without changing at all
When they do change it’s generally very sudden, one has the feature, and the prior one made did not. This is why year is not very informative.

Man Roland Printing Presses Used

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