How to Choose the Right Cold Press Capacity

Most buyers start in the wrong place. They look at a list of machines, pick a number that “sounds right”, and order. A few months later the press is either idle most of the day or already at its limit.

The right way is backwards. Start from the oil you need to sell, convert that into seed, convert seed into hours, and only then look at models. This guide walks through that calculation step by step. Where a number depends on your seed, your shift or your market, we show you how to obtain it instead of guessing for you.

The short version

Required capacity in kilograms of seed per hour is the only number that matters when choosing a press. Everything else is an input to it.

Monthly seed input (kg) = Monthly oil target (kg) ÷ Y
Seed per production day (kg) = Monthly seed input ÷ production days per month
Required kg/h = Seed per production day ÷ effective press hours per day

Y is your own oil yield: kilograms of oil obtained from one kilogram of seed. It is not a fixed number. It changes with the seed species, the variety, the growing season, moisture content, cleaning, storage time and press settings. Anyone who quotes you a yield figure for your seed without testing your seed is guessing. Section 2 explains how to measure it properly.

Step 1: Fix your monthly oil target

Write down how many kilograms of oil you need to produce per month. Not litres — kilograms, because seed is bought and pressed by weight. If your sales are in litres or bottles, convert first using the density of that oil, or simply weigh a full bottle of your product.

Be honest about which target you are planning for:

• Today’s demand. What you can actually sell now.
• Demand in 12 to 24 months. What you expect after your first year of selling.

You will use both. Today’s demand decides whether the machine is sensible to run. Future demand decides how much headroom to buy.

Step 2: Convert oil into seed input

Divide the oil target by your yield Y. If you need 1,000 kg of oil per month and your measured yield is Y kg of oil per kg of seed, your monthly seed requirement is 1,000 ÷ Y.

We deliberately do not publish yield percentages for any seed. Two sacks of the same seed from two suppliers can behave differently, and a number printed on a website is worthless as a basis for a purchase decision.

How to measure your own yield

Do this before you buy anything. It costs almost nothing and it is the single most valuable number in your plan.

1. Take a representative sample of the seed you will actually buy in volume — not a hand-picked sample.
2. Weigh the seed precisely. Record the weight.
3. Note the moisture condition and how the seed was stored. Damp seed and very dry seed behave differently.
4. Press the sample on a cold press. Collect all the oil, including what drips from the cake.
5. Let the oil settle or filter it the way you intend to sell it, then weigh the clean oil.
6. Divide clean oil weight by seed weight. That is your Y.
7. Repeat with a second and third batch from a different supplier or a different harvest. Use the lowest figure for planning, not the best one.

If you cannot run this test yourself, send us a seed sample. We will press it and report what came out, so your plan is built on your seed rather than on an assumption.

Step 3: Decide real working hours, not opening hours

A workshop that is open ten hours a day does not press for ten hours. Count only the time the screw is actually turning and seed is going in.

Subtract, for a normal shift:

• Warm-up before the first stable output.
• Refilling the hopper and clearing cake.
• Filter or settling-tank handling.
• Changeover if you press more than one seed type — this usually means a full clean between seeds so flavours and allergens do not carry over.
• End-of-shift cleaning and inspection.
• Operator breaks, if one person runs the machine.

What is left is your effective press hours per day. Write that number down. Also write down how many production days per month you will realistically run — allow for holidays, deliveries, maintenance and days when seed has not arrived.

Step 4: Add a margin

Your first calculation will assume everything works. It will not. Plan a margin for unplanned stops, seed quality problems, a blocked outlet, a public holiday, and the learning period of a new operator.

The cleanest way to apply the margin is to shrink the hours, not to inflate the machine:

• Use a conservative effective-hours figure rather than your best day.
• Use the lowest yield you measured, not the highest.
• Assume fewer production days per month than the calendar allows.

If the calculation still works under those pessimistic inputs, the plan is real.

Step 5: Calculate the required kg/h

Two worked examples. Every input below is a number you choose or measure — they are not our figures, and yours will be different.

Example A — a small producer

Your measurements give a monthly seed requirement of 700 kg. You will run 22 production days per month and you have counted 6 effective press hours per day.

• 700 ÷ 22 = 31.8 kg of seed per day
• 31.8 ÷ 6 = 5.3 kg/h required

A machine whose efficient band sits right on 5 kg/h would be at its ceiling on day one, with no room for a bad month. A press whose efficient band comfortably contains 5.3 kg/h — the CSP-10 in our range — leaves you the option to grow without buying twice.

Example B — a mill scaling up

Monthly seed requirement 5,000 kg, 22 production days, 6 effective hours.

• 5,000 ÷ 22 = 227 kg of seed per day
• 227 ÷ 6 = 37.9 kg/h required

That sits above the efficient band of our largest single press. You have three honest options, and only three:

1. Extend the shift. More effective hours per day lowers the required kg/h. A single CSP-30 running a longer or second shift can cover it.
2. Run more than one press. Two machines in parallel also give you redundancy — if one stops, production does not.
3. Move to a production line. The CSP-LINE arrangement puts presses in sequence for continuous operation.

Notice that the machine was not the first decision in either case. The shift pattern was.

Efficient range versus minimum–maximum range

For several models we publish two different throughput figures, and buyers regularly confuse them.

The wide range exists because seeds are not equal. A small, hard, oily seed and a large, soft, fibrous one move through the screw at very different speeds, so the same machine can show very different throughput depending on what you feed it. The top of that range is a physical limit reached under specific conditions — it is not a production rate.

Plan on the efficient figure. Sizing a business on the maximum figure is the most common and most expensive mistake in this market, because when you run at the extreme:

• Oil recovery generally drops — more oil leaves in the cake, and cake is worth far less than oil.
• Wear on the screw, cage and bearings accelerates, so consumable parts are replaced sooner.
• Heat management gets harder, which works against the whole point of cold pressing.
• There is no reserve left for a bad batch of seed or a rush order.

The bottom of the range matters too. A press run far below its efficient band can struggle to build and hold pressure consistently, which affects both output and cake quality.

Mapping kg/h to a model

Once you have a required kg/h figure, the shortlist is short. Compare against the efficient band, not the extremes.

Rules for reading this table:

• Your required kg/h should sit inside the efficient band, not at its top edge.
• If your figure falls between two models, look at your growth plan before you decide. A number close to the ceiling of the smaller model usually means the larger one.
• If your figure sits well below the smallest efficient band, do not buy a bigger machine “to be safe”. Buy the one that matches, and run it fewer hours.

Check your electricity before you check anything else

This decides the shortlist as firmly as capacity does.

• Single-phase 220V sites can run CSP-5, CSP-10 and CSP-15.
• CSP-30 requires 380V three-phase. If your site has only single-phase power, either arrange a three-phase connection, or plan capacity around multiple single-phase presses instead.

Also confirm your supply is stable. Voltage that sags under load, or a generator sized only for lighting, will cause stoppages that no amount of extra machine capacity can fix. Each of our presses draws power for both the motor and the seed heater — check the combined figure in the spec table against what your circuit and any generator can actually deliver, continuously, not as a peak.

Why buying too big wastes money

Oversizing feels like a safe mistake. It is not.

• Capital sits idle. Money spent on unused capacity is money not spent on seed stock, filtration, bottling, labelling or marketing — the things that actually create sales.
• Running below the efficient band is inefficient, so your cost per kilogram of oil can be worse than it would be on a correctly sized machine.
• Larger machines need more space, more floor strength and more cleaning. A press that takes longer to clean between seed types eats the very hours you calculated in Step 3.
• Three-phase requirements may force an electrical installation you did not budget for.
• Cash flow risk. A big press only pays for itself when it is fed. Feeding it means buying more seed, earlier, before you know you can sell the oil.

Why buying too small caps growth

Undersizing is the mirror mistake, and its cost is hidden in orders you cannot accept.

• You hit the ceiling exactly when demand arrives, which is the worst possible moment.
• The only lever left is longer hours, which means overtime, night shifts, or a second operator.
• Maintenance windows disappear, because every hour of downtime is an hour of lost production.
• You end up buying a second machine anyway — which is fine if it was planned, and expensive if it was not.

A sensible target: size for today’s demand with the machine sitting inside its efficient band, and choose the model that still has room when your realistic 12-to-24-month forecast is plugged into the same formula.

When a production line makes sense

Move from a single press to a CSP-LINE arrangement when:

• Your required kg/h exceeds what one press can deliver inside its efficient band across the shift you are willing to run.
• You cannot extend the shift — no second operator, no night work permitted, or the site closes.
• You need redundancy, because a single stopped machine means a missed delivery.
• You press several seed types and want to avoid constant changeover cleaning on one machine.

CSP-LINE is a sequence of presses working together. Because the configuration depends on how many units you need and how the material moves between them, we do not publish a single set of figures for it — tell us your required kg/h and your available floor space, and we will propose an arrangement.

Beyond capacity: what else changes the answer

Capacity narrows the list. These points decide between the survivors.

• Which seeds, and how often you switch. Every changeover costs cleaning time. If you press one seed all week, you get more effective hours than someone alternating daily.
• Residual oil in the cake. Oil left in the cake is oil you paid for and cannot sell. Compare this figure across models in the spec table — over a year, a small difference is real money.
• What you do with the cake. Animal feed, flour, or waste? If cake has a buyer, the economics of your whole plan change.
• Space and weight. Check dimensions and machine weight in the spec table against your door width, floor and bench. Heavier machines are not portable once installed.
• Downstream equipment. A press produces raw oil. Settling tanks, filtration and bottling must keep pace, or the press waits.
• Documentation for import. Ask any supplier — including us — what documentation will accompany the machine and what your country’s customs and food-safety authorities require. Requirements differ by destination, so confirm with your own importer or customs broker rather than relying on a claim on a website.
• Spare parts and consumables. The screw, cage and seals are wear items. Ask how they are supplied before you order, not after.

Checklist before you request a quote

Have these ready and any serious supplier can size a machine for you in one message:

1. Which seed or seeds, and roughly what proportions.
2. Target oil output per month, in kilograms.
3. Your measured yield Y — or a request for us to test your seed.
4. Production days per month and effective press hours per day.
5. Your growth forecast for 12 to 24 months.
6. Site power: single-phase 220V or three-phase 380V, and whether supply is stable.
7. Available floor space and access route for delivery.
8. Destination country, for documentation and shipping.

Next step

If you have your numbers, send them and we will tell you which model your figures point to — including telling you when a smaller machine is the right answer.

If you do not yet know your yield, send us a seed sample. We will press it and report what your seed actually produced, so that your capacity decision rests on measurement instead of assumption.

Request a quote with your seed type, monthly oil target and site power, and we will size it with you.

Request a quote