Why Won't My Press Print? A 7-Point Checklist Before You Order Mark Andy Press Parts

I'm a production manager who has been handling Mark Andy service orders for 12 years. I've personally made and documented 31 significant mistakes—totaling roughly $47,000 in wasted budget. Actually, that number only covers direct parts and redo costs. It doesn't include downtime.

This checklist is why I haven't repeated most of those mistakes. Use it in three situations: before ordering Mark Andy press parts, before you sign off on a demo run of a used Mark Andy Pro Series press, and any time someone stares at a machine and says 'it just won't print.'

There are seven checks. Do them in order. If you skip one, you'll probably end up buying a part that wasn't the problem. I know because I've done exactly that.

When to Use This Checklist

Use this when a press that printed fine yesterday is suddenly producing garbage today. Use it when a new job fails on the first make-ready. Use it when the office printer sits with an error light and your first instinct is to order a new everything. The same logic applies to a 7-color flexo press and a $90 HP inkjet: verify the simple things before you touch a wrench.

The 7-Point Checklist

1. Define the Failure in One Sentence

When someone asks me 'why won't my HP printer print?' the first thing I ask for is the exact error message. More often than not, the issue is a wrong default printer, a jammed paper path, or an expired ink cartridge. Not a hardware failure.

A flexo press is no different. 'It's not printing' is not a diagnosis. Write down the symptom, the job, the stock, and the speed. For example: 'Color is 20% light on the label stock, starts after 50 meters, press speed 120 m/min.' That's a problem you can solve. 'It looks bad' is not.

2. Check the Ink (Yes, Printer Ink Expires)

In my first year (2017), I ordered $680 in plate cylinder bearings because a six-color label job looked washed out. The bearings weren't the issue. The magenta ink was 18 months past its date and had been stored near a drying oven. The press was fine. The ink was not. A lesson learned the hard way.

Does printer ink expire? Yes. Office cartridges carry a date for a reason. Bulk flexo ink has a use-by date too, and it doesn't care if the container looks okay. If you opened the drum more than 12 months ago and it wasn't stored at controlled temperature, don't trust it for important work.

If you run a UV curing system, check lamp intensity as well. UV ink won't cure under a weak lamp, and replacing press parts won't fix that.

For brand-critical colors, industry standard tolerance is Delta E < 2. Reference: Pantone Color Matching System guidelines.

3. Clean the Contact Points—and Mind the Scraper

Dried ink builds up on doctor blades, anilox rolls, plate cylinders, and impression cylinders. A 'sudden quality drop' after wash-up is usually residue or a nicked blade.

Here's where a 3D printer scraper can help—and where it can hurt. A 3D printer scraper with a thin flexible blade is fine for lifting cured ink off a glass washout tank or a work bench. It is not fine for an anilox roll. I scored a 500-line anilox in 2019 with an unsharpened metal scraper. Repair cost: $1,400. Use the proper brass or plastic scraper and the correct solvent for your ink system.

If the anilox looks clean but the cell count is packed with dried ink, that's an expensive cleaning problem, not a press part problem.

4. Check the Substrate Before You Check the Press

Paper and film can change more than any mechanical component. A 20 lb bond is about 75 gsm. An 80 lb cover is about 216 gsm. These conversions are approximate, but they explain why a job that ran perfectly on one stock suddenly misbehaves on another.

In 2021, I shipped a $3,200 label order printed on recycled film that had been stored in a hot warehouse. The film was the problem. The press, the plate, and the ink were all fine. The customer still waited a week because I didn't inspect the substrate first. Not my finest month.

5. Verify the File and the Plate—Not Just the Press

Commercial print resolution standard is 300 DPI at final size. Large format viewed from a distance can be 150 DPI; newsprint is around 170–200 DPI. If a customer sends a logo pulled off a website, it's probably 72 DPI. No plate maker or press part can fix that.

Quick calculation: a 3000 by 2000 pixel image at 300 DPI is 10 inches wide. If you need an 11-inch print, it's going to be soft. Check the file limitations before you make a plate.

The 'it must be mechanical' thinking comes from an era when presses had fewer sensors and prepress was simpler. Today, most print failures are file or preparation problems.

6. Run a Known Test Print Side by Side

This is the step most people skip. Instead of adjusting the live job, run a test file with defined Pantone values, dot percentages, and a color bar. Compare it side by side with a known-good proof.

When I compared a failed production run against a known test print on the same stock, I finally understood why the details matter. The press was fine. The job file had been converted incorrectly during prepress. I had spent two days chasing a mechanical problem. Seeing the two prints side by side solved it in 30 seconds.

If you don't have a reference proof, make one. It doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to be known.

7. Document the Evidence Before Ordering Any Mark Andy Press Parts

After the first six checks, you'll know if you actually need parts. If you do, document what you checked. I require three lines from my team: symptom, what was tested, and what evidence points to a part replacement.

This rule has caught 47 potential ordering mistakes in the past 18 months. It also makes the phone call to our Mark Andy press parts supplier faster. Instead of ordering a part we haven't named, we say 'we have a documented anilox bearing issue after running these checks.'

What This Checklist Won't Fix

Honesty is part of the job. This checklist will not fix a press with a dead motor controller, a damaged drive train, or a major electrical fault. If the press throws alarms and stops mid-run, call a service engineer. This list is for the 80% of quality problems that are actually setup problems.

It's also not a replacement for a demo run. If you're evaluating a used Mark Andy Pro Series press for sale price that seems too good to pass up, run this checklist during the demo. The real cost of a used press shows up later in unexpected parts orders. An hour of test printing tells you more than ten phone calls.

Common Mistakes I Still See

These are the same errors that cost me real money, repeated by smart people who are in a hurry:

• Skipping step 2 because 'the ink looks fine.' It can look fine and be dead.
• Cleaning an anilox with anything abrasive—including the wrong scraper.
• Trusting a monitor color match instead of a Pantone proof.
• Ordering parts before writing down the exact symptom.
• Leaving a 'temporary fix' in place so long you forget whether the press is actually healthy.

Every one of those is a lesson I paid for. Use the checklist, and maybe you'll skip the school fees.