Many offset presses running today are older than the people running them, and that’s considering that some of the people running them are not exactly spring chickens. Is it comforting that majority of the offset presses running today are in the “Gen Z” range of 14 to 29 years old? Not really, when you consider that there are plenty of Millennials (30 to 45 years old) and Gen X (46 to 61 years old.) Heck, there are probably a handful of Boomer presses being run by Boomer operators (62 to 80 years old.)

Luckily these presses age a lot better than people. Web offset presses remain the lowest cost per unit production option at high volumes. Particularly if the equipment is fully depreciated (and many have been for a decade or more.) However, the true cost per unit must consider both the productivity and utilization of the press.

Even accounting for rebuilding or refurbishing presses over time, it can be difficult to find OEM parts for older presses. Companies can keep presses limping along by cannibalizing other equipment, using third-party fabricators, or custom machining. Still, the potential for down-time adds risk to the ability to reliably deliver on the long-run work where these presses shine. That takes us to the utilization portion of the cost-per-unit discussion.