A press is a line of machines that has to go back together exactly as it came apart. Across the Chicago metro we take presses and bindery equipment down unit by unit with your technicians, rig and crate each piece, and set them back in order so the press can be brought up again.
Quick answer: Badass Logistics provides printing press moving in Chicago, IL and the surrounding metro. We move offset, web, flexo, and digital presses and bindery lines — disassembled with your press technicians, rigged, crated, moved, and reassembled in order. Our crews work across Chicago and nearby Illinois metros, and moves between facilities run as project freight under the same plan — usually quoted the same day. Call (307) 284-1332.
Moving a press is mostly a sequencing problem. Each printing unit, the feeder, the delivery, the dryers and the controls come apart in an order, travel as separate loads, and have to reach the new floor in the order they go back down. In Chicago, print and packaging shops run tight schedules, so the downtime window is usually what the whole plan is built around.
Badass Logistics works alongside your press technicians or the manufacturer's: they handle the mechanical and electrical disconnects, and we rig, skid, crate, and load each section. At the new site we set the units on the layout and our millwrights level and align them for the technicians to reconnect. Moving the whole plant? That's plant relocation. How to move a printing press →
Chicago's print and packaging base includes Daily Herald printing plant, Schaumburg, RR Donnelley, and Smurfit Westrock Chicago Card plant, Woodridge. Shops like these replace and relocate presses on tight downtime windows, so the teardown, the loads, and the reassembly are scheduled as one job.
Chicago, IL runs on heavy manufacturing & the nation's rail hub, and almost none of it stays put. Same crews and the same printing press moving standards across the region:
Commercial printers, newspaper plants, and packaging and converting shops around Chicago run lines that come apart in sections. The equipment we move includes:
The floor is the constraint. Chicago's industrial buildings are a mix of older multi-storey brick loft buildings in corridors like Kinzie and Little Village with tight column spacing and small freight elevators, alongside larger single-storey clear-span plants further from the core, and a press needs a level slab with the capacity for its heaviest unit before anything is set. Most print and converting floors here sit in the Kinzie Industrial Corridor near the Near West Side, the Pullman industrial district on the far South Side, the Little Village industrial corridor along the Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the Calumet industrial area along Lake Calumet.
Multi-unit sheetfed presses taken down, moved, and set in sequence across the Chicago metro.
Web press units, folders, and reel stands rigged and relocated across the Chicago metro.
Flexo, converting, and packaging lines moved for packaging plants across the Chicago metro.
Cutters, folders, stitchers, and finishing lines moved and set across the Chicago metro.
Plenty of Chicago jobs start and finish on one floor. The rest have to travel — to a new building across the metro, a sister plant down I-55, I-80, I-90 and I-94, or a facility in another state. We don't hand that part off. It runs as project freight inside the same plan: machines crated or prepped on site, loads sequenced to the rig-out, transport through our licensed broker and carrier partners with dedicated capacity for bigger moves, and our crew waiting at the destination to set it.
Presses moving into or out of Chicago rarely travel as one load. The Illinois International Port District on Lake Calumet handles bulk and breakbulk cargo with access to the Great Lakes and, via the Illinois Waterway, the Mississippi River system. Served by BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Canadian National and CPKC, with Chicago functioning as the largest rail interchange hub in North America. A used press sold overseas or bought in from another plant is crated unit by unit and sequenced so the sections reach the floor in the order they go back down.
Every printing press moving job in Chicago, IL is quoted from the actual work, not a rate sheet. These are the things that move the number — send them with your request and you'll get a real quote back fast:
Photos of the equipment, its nameplate, and the path out of the building save a site visit on smaller Chicago jobs. For bigger moves we walk both sites before we price anything.
The same Chicago crews handle every kind of industrial rigging. If your job looks more like one of these, start here:
Running a trucking fleet out of Chicago? See truck dispatch for fleets of 4+ trucks.
Working throughout Chicago, IL and the surrounding metro — backed by a nationwide network of 88 locations when a move crosses state lines.
Printing Press Moving throughout Chicago and the industrial suburbs around it — the towns below are where the plants, shops and distribution parks actually sit:
| Town | County | From downtown |
|---|---|---|
| Joliet | Will County | 32 mi |
| Aurora | Kane County | 35 mi |
| Naperville | DuPage County | 26 mi |
| Elgin | Kane County | 35 mi |
| Cicero | Cook County | 5 mi |
| Gary, IN | Lake County | 24 mi |
| Hammond, IN | Lake County | 20 mi |
| Bolingbrook | Will County | 24 mi |
| Bedford Park | Cook County | 10 mi |
| Romeoville | Will County | 27 mi |
| Elk Grove Village | Cook County | 20 mi |
| Waukegan | Lake County | 37 mi |
| Arlington Heights | Cook County | 24 mi |
| Evanston | Cook County | 13 mi |
| Schaumburg | Cook County | 26 mi |
| Palatine | Cook County | 27 mi |
| Skokie | Cook County | 13 mi |
| Des Plaines | Cook County | 17 mi |
| Orland Park | Cook County | 19 mi |
| Tinley Park | Cook County | 20 mi |
| Oak Lawn | Cook County | 11 mi |
| Berwyn | Cook County | 7 mi |
| Mount Prospect | Cook County | 21 mi |
| Wheaton | DuPage County | 24 mi |
Moving across the metro or out of state? See all our Chicago services or get a quote.
Most Chicago jobs don't stop at one service. The crew that rigs a machine out is the crew that manages the move and sets it back down — so you're dealing with one company from the disconnect to the re-level, not three subcontractors pointing at each other.
Machine has to come off the floor, through the door, or onto a pad before it travels? That's the rigging side of the same Chicago crew.
Chicago riggers →Presses, compressors, generators, full production lines — disconnected, rigged, hauled, and re-leveled across Chicago as one accountable job.
Chicago machinery moving company →Machine tools are instruments, not freight. VMCs, lathes, and grinders moved on air-ride and squared back to the builder's spec in Chicago.
Chicago CNC movers →Moving the whole floor instead of one machine? Phased teardown, sequenced loads, and reinstallation planning for Chicago plants.
plant relocation in Chicago →In Chicago we also run riggers, machinery movers, CNC movers, and plant relocation, plus project freight for the jobs we rig — or see every service we offer in Chicago.
The same Chicago crew also handles millwright services, machinery removal, crane and rigging services, and machinery loading and unloading.
Specialty rigging in Chicago: heavy lift rigging, chiller and HVAC rigging, transformer and generator rigging, MRI and medical equipment rigging, lab equipment moving, and data center rigging.
Tell us what's moving and where. We'll route the nearest crew and quote it fast.
Get a Chicago Press Move Quote