How the hour rate is worked out
Everything is first turned into a cost per year, then divided by the hours the press actually produces: hours a day × days a year × producing share. That last number is where most hour rates go wrong — a press "runs 20 hours a day" but produces for 14.
Depreciation = (price − resale) ÷ life. Interest = average capital tied up (price + resale) ÷ 2 × rate. Power = connected kW × average draw × producing hours × tariff. Operator = salary × 12 ÷ presses per operator. Maintenance = a share of the machine price each year. Shed and admin is whatever share of rent, supervision and office this press should carry.
The quoting rate adds margin as a share of the rate (15% means rate ÷ 0.85), and cost per shot is the rate ÷ shots per hour at the cycle you enter.
What a 150-tonne press usually comes to
With the defaults above — a ₹21.5 lakh machine, 10-year life, 4,500 producing hours a year — the cost lands around ₹240 an hour, and electricity is the largest single line at close to ₹100 of it. Hydraulic presses from the 2000s draw more; servo and all-electric presses draw a third less. The ₹400–550 an hour you hear quoted for job work at this size leaves a margin on paper; it disappears when the producing share drops below 50%, or the press draws 40 kW instead of 25.
Where the number hides
Idle power. Heaters stay on through breaks and short stops. On Star Enterprises' floor, a hydraulic press draws about 1.2 kW sitting hot with no shots — ₹8–10 an hour for nothing, on every press. Cystems flags power used while stopped.
The producing share. Mould changes, trials, no-order days and breakdowns all come out of it. Measure it from the press's own run signal rather than guessing; it moves month to month.
One operator, two presses halves the labour line, but only if both presses are actually running.
Use this rate in the part cost calculator to quote a job.