Availability of Printing Press Parts

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Like your feedback on this question.

How long should a press manufacturer stock/supply parts for its printing presses? If you have a press that is currently 5 years old, or 10 years old or older, should not the manufacturer keep that those press parts in the supply chain? How long should the 3rd party OEM's keep parts in the supply chain when the parts were sold with the press? Thank you!

 

[John Van Hoorn]

The bottom line is a manufacturer will keep selling parts as long as they can be profitable doing so.

 

[Ret Heidelberg Instructor]

If the manufacturer goes out of business, then you can expect that all bets are off. You now will have to scrounge for parts and hope that somebody has an inventory of whataever parts you need. Think of the auto industry with the Saturn line of cars went out of sales and production but yet there are many Saturn vehicles still on the road.

 

[wld85022]

I can buy all Hamada parts; new not seconds or poor aftermarket. Including electrical. They have been out the U.S. market since ... what? 2009? It depends on the Company. I thought as a rule the standard time length after discontinuation of a product was seven years? Of course with Hamada, they are still around. They have just moved on to greener pastures.

 

[Mike Herndon]

Depends, I would expect a major press manufacture to have parts for at least 10 years. If not, then I would want something in writing from the manufacture stating "XYZ will no longer supply parts for this year of machine" etc. We've had issues with our older Heidelbergs in getting parts, some parts are discontinued and a retrofit is required. The delivery gripper opening cam is one part that you can not buy the cam alone anymore on an older press you must by the whole assembly, around $5K.

An old Planeta, Miehle Roland or even ManRoland, I would think parts support would be challenging.

Mike