Print Press Machine Shop Services: Repair Parts, Replacement, Maintenance

                                                    A print press machine shop looks after the printing industry's manufacturing needs, maintenance requirements, printing press parts including replacement parts, custom parts, etc. Repair parts for printing industry include accessories for the graphic arts sector and aftermarket replacement parts for offset and letterpress printing presses from all leading brands including Townsend, Davidson, Hamada, AB Dick, Gestetner, Chief, Multilith and others. All quality machine shops catering to the printing industry will use latest CNC/CAD technologies to build the parts and the parts will meet and often exceed OEM quality. Apart from the replacement parts, many shops will also offer a complete range of accessories which include dampening units, rollers, chemicals, inks, infrared dyers, powder spray, rebuild kits, etc.

Repair parts

The most common printing press repair parts include gripper bars, wash-up blades, suckers, water bottle valve/cap for 1- and 2-color presses, rollers and roller kits for different models. Some printing press machine shop facilities, for example, offer roller kits for Presstek, Heidelberg, Kodak and Ryobi models. The kits will typically include one doctor roller, and a number of distributor rollers and form rollers. Roller kits often come handy as a cost-saving option than if one went for individual items. Dealers in repair parts will also offer bindery and other related pressroom equipment such as paper cutters, sprayers and dryers, paper drills, folders, corner rounders, etc.

Print press machine shop services

However, all dealers in printing press equipment may not offer all the services provided by a machine shop specializing in printing press parts manufacture, repair and maintenance, replacement as well as reverse engineering. The key processes involved in machine shop services associated with printing press include, grinding, turning, milling, press work and welding.

On-site cylinder repair services are a crucial activity for any machine shop serving the print industry. On-site repair generally takes care of issues like repair of cylinders suffering damage due to low spots, cave ins; honing and line-boring of side frames, etc. In-house services, on the other hand, cover areas such as welding and machining of journals to return them back to their original dimensions; sleeving back the journals and metal spraying them; rebuilding of O.D. s with Chrome or metal spraying; preloading bearings; manufacturing and installing bearers; welding and milling gaps to factory specifications; etc. Some of the key sectors served in the printing press industry include web press printers, food service packaging, medical packaging, industrial packaging, agriculture packaging, sheet fed printers, etc.

Turnaround time for the jobs differ according to the nature of the task. Most repair works save rollers and cylinders are done in 1-2 days. Full cylinder rebuilds, however, takes 2-3 weeks whereas roller rebuild and repair works typically take 1-2 weeks. On-site cylinder repair can be done in a matter of few hours if the damage is not too severe.