The Flexo Press Buying Checklist: 7 Mistakes I Made So You Don't Have To

If you're shopping for a flexo press — a Mark Andy Pro Series flexo press, or maybe a used Mark Andy 2200 press for sale at a tempting price — this checklist is for you. It's also for the version of me from 2017, who didn't have a clue.

Here's my background in one honest paragraph. I'm a production manager at a mid-size label converter, and I've been handling press procurement for 8 years. I've personally made (and documented) 11 significant buying mistakes, totaling roughly $47,000 in wasted budget. Last year I wrote our pre-purchase checklist so my team stops repeating my errors. This is that checklist, in public form.

Seven steps. No fluff. If you're a commercial printer or a label converter about to spend serious capital on a press, run all of them.

Why This Checklist Exists

It took me 3 years and about 150 orders to understand that vendor relationships and verification processes matter more than machine specs. A Mark Andy Pro Series flexo press is a proven machine. But 'proven' on paper means nothing if you skip the verification steps below.

Step 1: Map Your Repeat Range Against Your Real Job Mix

Most buyers focus on speed and web width. They completely miss repeat range compatibility.

We bought a press advertised with an 18-inch repeat capability. Most of our labels run at 8-inch repeats. Workable? Yes. But the changeover time between repeat sizes was eating 40 minutes per shift. Across a 26-shift month, that's a full shift of production lost. A lesson learned the hard way.

The fix: pull your last 90 days of orders, calculate the repeat range that covers 90% of your jobs, and make that your baseline requirement. Not the brochure. Your data.

Also, if you expect frequent format changes, ask about quick-change sleeves and how fast the press actually handles a repeat change. Our press crew called the slow part 'the fifteen-minute coffee break.' It stopped being funny after the first month.

Step 2: Test UV Curing at Full Production Speed

The Mercury UV curing system is one of the main reasons people evaluate Mark Andy. It's a good system. But the catch that bit me: 'standard cure' on the vendor's demo substrate is not the same as 'fully cured' on your pressure-sensitive stock.

The press failure in September 2022 changed how I think about this. We ran a 44,000-foot order on a glossy film label stock. Coming off the press, it looked fine. The rolls sat in our warehouse for three days. Then the converter called: ink smearing, adhesion failure. $12,400 wasted and a delivery deadline burned.

Not a Mark Andy problem. A verification problem. We hadn't run a cure test at production speed on our actual substrate. Now we do, every time — same stock, same ink, same target speed. We also measure the UV lamp output before the run and before the first shift of every new job. Simple.

Step 3: Used Press? Demand the Maintenance Log

Let's say the used Mark Andy 2200 press for sale looks like a no-brainer. Good price, decent hours on the counter. The seller says it was 'well maintained.'

Trust me on this one: ask for the maintenance log. In writing. Before you transfer a deposit.

We didn't have a formal verification process for used presses. Cost us when our 'well-maintained' 2200 needed a new anilox roll and a full bearing set within four months. That's not a knock on used equipment — I've bought great used presses too. The good ones came with complete service records. The bad one came with a hand-wave.

When you get the logs, look for three things: total impression count, how often anilox rolls were reconditioned or replaced, and whether the manufacturer's recommended service intervals were actually followed. Plus, ask which of those parts the seller has already replaced. That tells you what's coming next.

Red flag: if a seller of a used commercial printer can't produce maintenance records, ask why. It's a standard part of a professional equipment handover.

Step 4: Run a Trial With Your Own Substrate

'The vendor's sample looked amazing.'

Of course it did. It was produced on their substrate, their floor, their conditions.

In my first year (2017), I made the classic error: I chose a press based on vendor-supplied samples. The first production run on our machine looked different. Not worse, exactly. Different. Colors shifted because our stock absorbed ink differently than the sample stock.

Ask for a trial roll through the machine with your actual material. Watch the run, keep the samples, inspect them under your own lighting. If a vendor hesitates on this, that's a deal-breaker.

Step 5: Calculate the Total Cost of Ownership

Most buyers focus on the quoted price and completely miss everything wrapped around it. Rigging. Installation. Operator training. Initial tooling. Anilox inventory. First-year UV lamp replacement.

On our second press, those extras added 22% to the sticker price. Caught me completely off guard.

Ballpark rules I use now:

• New press: add 15–30% to the quoted price for full commissioning.
• Used press: set aside at least 5% of the purchase price as a repair reserve.

Also, ask about training. A flexo press is only as fast as the team running it. If the deal includes operator training, count that as real value. If it doesn't, budget for it. The same applies to installation supervision — paying for the manufacturer's own tech during commissioning is worth every dollar.

Step 6: Check Registration Accuracy at Speed

Every flexo press can hold registration at 50 feet per minute. The pressrooms hitting 200+ fpm with ±0.005-inch registration are doing something different.

Here's the test our team uses: run a job at 80% of the press's maximum rated speed. Stop. Inspect. Then run it again and inspect again. Look for dot gain, registration drift, and web tension issues at speed.

The first time we did this, it caught a problem on a press we'd been running for two years. That's when I fully understood how much I'd been assuming. The third time I caught a specification issue this way, I finally created this checklist. Should have done it after the first.

If the press vibrates or web tension fluctuates at high speed, you will see it in the print before you ever fix it in the mechanicals. So test at speed. Idle numbers are just numbers.

Step 7: Know What You're Buying — and What You Aren't

This is the step most people skip, because it doesn't feel technical. But it's the one that saves the most money.

A flexo press is the right tool for mid-to-long runs of labels, packaging, and flexible films. It is not the right tool for everything with the word 'printer' in it.

I get questions sometimes about office equipment — like whether an HP office printer supports AirPrint, or how to set one up. For what it's worth, AirPrint is Apple's wireless printing protocol that lets an iPhone or iPad print to a compatible printer without installing drivers. Handy in a front office. Irrelevant on a pressroom floor. And honestly, that's not my lane. If you need a fleet of office printers, ask someone who maintains them for a living.

That's the point. The vendor who said 'this isn't our strength — here's who does it better' earned my trust for everything else. I'd rather work with a specialist who knows their limits than a generalist who overpromises.

Same applies to you. If you're a commercial printer, define the range of work you actually want to win — and buy the press that does that. Not the one that 'can do everything.'

Final Checklist — Copy This Page

• [ ] Repeat range covers 90% of your last 90 days of orders
• [ ] UV curing tested at full speed on your actual substrate
• [ ] Maintenance logs received and reviewed (for used presses)
• [ ] Trial run completed with your own stock
• [ ] Total cost of ownership calculated: rigging, training, tooling, spares
• [ ] Registration verified at 80% of max speed
• [ ] You can articulate what you're NOT buying and why

Two mistakes I still see people make with this checklist: treating item one as optional, and skipping the last item because it feels philosophical. Both are expensive. The repeat range gap created our 40-minutes-per-shift waste. The skipped scope conversation led to a colleague buying a press that 'could handle anything' — and then spending 18 months adjusting it to handle the work that actually pays the bills.

That's it. Print it, pin it next to your quote request form. It's saved us roughly $47,000 since I put it together. I'd rather you skipped the learning curve entirely.