A 5-Step Checklist for Buying a Used Komori Offset Press (Even When You're Under Deadline)

When your two-color press starts making a noise that sounds expensive—or rather, a noise that's going to be expensive—you don't have three months to find a replacement. You need a used Komori offset printing machine, and you need it producing saleable sheets within the next three weeks.

This isn't a guide for digital presses, desktop printers, or additive machines. Those are different tools for different jobs. This is specifically about a used Komori offset press—the kind that runs 40-inch sheets and prints millions of impressions a year.

I've spent 12 years coordinating equipment acquisitions for a commercial printing company, handling 20+ press purchases in that time. In March 2024, we had to source, install, and commission a Lithrone within ten days to honor a packaging contract. Missing that deadline would have meant a $50,000 penalty clause. That experience—and the mistakes I made before it—taught me exactly how to vet a used press under pressure.

This checklist has five steps. Follow them in order. Skip any at your own risk.

Step 1: Request the Maintenance Logs Before You Visit

The seller will show you a meter reading. Treat it as a starting point, not as the truth.

If I remember correctly, one press we evaluated in late 2023 was advertised with 28 million impressions. The maintenance logs, which I asked for before scheduling a visit, showed what the meter didn't: a 14-month gap in service records, two compressor replacements, and a repair that involved the delivery-side gearbox. That's not a 28-million-impression machine; that's a 40-million-impression machine with a reset meter.

What to ask for:

• Complete service records with dates and technician names
• Any documentation of accident or flood damage
• The serial numbers of major replaced components—verify them against the parts list

If the seller hesitates to share maintenance records electronically before you visit, walk away. Machines don't hide their history from the people who service them.

Also, open the control cabinet and take a careful look—or rather, a careful smell. A press that sat in floodwater has a specific odor. So does a press that had an electrical fire (or almost had one). Your nose detects things the seller's description won't mention.

One more thing: pay attention to the press's bedding and leveling. A machine that's been moved and re-installed multiple times can develop alignment issues that are expensive to correct. Check for thick shim stacks under the units—a lot of compensating shims often signals frame damage that someone has been working around.

Step 2: Test the KHS System the Way a Pilot Tests a Plane

What makes a Komori Lithrone valuable is the KHS Hyper System: the closed-loop automation that cuts makeready times and keeps color consistent. That's also the most expensive system to repair. The most frustrating part of evaluating used Komori presses is that sellers focus your attention on the mechanical side—cylinders, gears, rollers—because that's where they've spent their maintenance budget. The electronics, which can cost five figures to sort out later, get treated as an afterthought. You'd think the system that adds the most value would get the most scrutiny, but it often doesn't.

When I'm triaging a used press, I run the console through a full boot cycle before inspecting anything else, looking for:

• Startup errors or system warnings that get cleared without being fixed
• The KHS software version printed at boot—old firmware means an upgrade cost
• The fault-message history. Recurring fault codes, even if "harmless," indicate a sensor or actuator problem the seller knows about. Actually, let me rephrase that: recurring fault codes are a sign of a known problem, and you should ask about it directly.
• Whether the machine saves and loads job presets correctly. If the KHS database can't hold settings between jobs, you lose the speed advantage the system was built for.

In my experience, sellers rarely volunteer information about software limitations. You have to ask the pressing questions yourself. Let me put it differently: you have to demand the answers, because the salesman may not know them, and the technician who does may have been told to stay quiet.

Check the age of the console's computer hardware too. A console running a legacy operating system on aging hardware should be factored into your offer as a future replacement cost. Not a dealbreaker by itself, but a negotiation point.

Step 3: Run a Print Test With Your Stock, Your Inks, Your Targets

Like most beginners, I accepted the seller's test print on my first press purchase. It was a beautiful sheet on 100 lb coated text. Once the press landed in our shop and ran our standard 80 lb cover, the ghosting appeared. The press was fine—under the seller's conditions. Our conditions were different.

Don't let the seller define the test parameters. You define them.

Here's what I bring to a test run:

• Our standard house stock: 80 lb cover (about 216 gsm), 100 lb text (about 150 gsm), and a bit of lightweight 20 lb bond if we run commercial forms. If your typical jobs run heavier, bring that too.
• A Pantone fan book to select spot colors.
• A densitometer to measure density and dot gain. If the seller objects to you measuring, ask why.

"Industry standard color tolerance is Delta E < 2 for brand-critical colors. Delta E of 2–4 is noticeable to trained observers; above 4 is visible to most people." — Pantone Color Matching System guidelines

The press should hold that tolerance on your stock, not the seller's. Verify registration and sharpness as well. At 300 DPI—the industry standard for commercial offset—a 3000 × 2000 pixel image yields a 10 × 6.67 inch print at final size. If the press can't hold crisp dots at that level, quality complaints will follow.

If you print business cards or other small-format products, bring that stock too. US standard business cards are 3.5 × 2 inches; European cards are 85 × 55 mm. A test form that includes these sizes shows you how the press handles fussy, small-format registration.

A test run takes about two hours and a few hundred dollars' worth of paper and ink. It can prevent a $200,000 mistake.

Step 4: Check Komori Press Parts Lead Times Before You Negotiate

"Komori press parts" needs to be more than a search term. It needs to be a supply chain. Because the press is only as good as the parts availability behind it.

I still kick myself for not checking parts lead times before my second press purchase. The machine ran beautifully for three months. Then a sensor array failed. The lead time for a replacement: six weeks. Six weeks of a silent press while the lease payments continued.

What to verify before signing:

• Current lead times on high-wear parts for that specific model
• Whether Komori still manufactures the KHS control board—and if not, what third-party options exist
• Whether any critical parts fall into the "obsolete but available used" category
• The cost of a routine maintenance kit (rollers, blankets, chemistry)

If you can, call an independent parts distributor and ask: "What's the typical lead time on parts for a [model]?" The answer might surprise you.

And remember: paper weight names can be misleading. 20 lb bond is about 75 gsm, and 80 lb cover is about 216 gsm. When you talk to parts vendors, be specific about the models and serial numbers you're quoting, not the stock you'll run.

Step 5: Put Every Verbal Promise in the Contract

One of my biggest regrets: not documenting a seller's verbal promise to provide calibration support after installation. When I called a month later to schedule it, they said, "That's not part of the deal," and quoted me $3,800.

Since then, I've insisted on a written addendum covering:

• Delivery and rigging responsibilities, with dates and penalties for slippage
• Commissioning schedule and acceptance criteria—quantified, not just "the press must perform well"
• Operator training hours and who delivers them
• The warranty period, what it covers (parts? labor? both?), and the claims process
• A performance clause specifying what happens if the press doesn't hold Delta E < 2 on your test stock after installation

The seller who pushes back on these clauses is the seller who was counting on ambiguity.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Across 20+ acquisitions—some of them mine—I've seen the same errors repeat:

1. Assuming "refurbished" means the same thing to every seller. It can mean a cosmetic wipe-down or a complete mechanical rebuild. Ask for the list of replaced parts with part numbers.
2. Skipping the substrate test. The most common and most expensive mistake. Two hours of testing now prevents years of headaches later.
3. Not planning for operator training. Even experienced pressmen need time to adapt to a new machine's quirks. Schedule installation a week before your first real production run.
4. Forgetting about consumables. 20 lb bond is cheap; press chemistry and blankets are not. Check the ongoing cost of consumables before you commit.

An Honest Word About Scope

Because this article gets found through a variety of search terms, I want to be clear about what I do and don't cover. I'm a commercial offset guy. I sometimes get questions about the HP Tango X printer, Shining 3D printers, and even about how to connect a Brother printer to WiFi. Those are outside my lane. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on consumer printers or additive manufacturing. The vendor who says "this isn't our strength—here's who does it better" earns trust for everything else they claim. I apply the same principle.

If you need help with those consumer devices, the manufacturer's support documentation will get you further than I can. But if you're buying a used Komori press, this checklist is where I can genuinely help.

A used Komori can be the best investment your shop makes, if you verify everything, test properly, and document every promise. It can also become a very expensive anchor if you skip steps. Five steps. Follow all of them. Your deadlines depend on it.