Working In The Industry

Machine Printing Work

Printing machine operators are also known as press operators. Their job involves preparing, operating, and maintaining the printing presses in the pressroom. The duties of the printing machine operator vary, depending on the type and size of presses they are using. Preparing presses for printing, a machine operators tasks include:

While printing presses are running, press operators then have to watch over the machine operation. Their tasks include keeping the paper feeders well stocked, making adjustments to correct uneven ink distribution, watching over machine speed and monitoring the temperature in the drying chamber. If the paper jams or tears and the press stops, the print operators quickly have to correct the problem to keep machine downtime as short as possible.

Print operators are constantly on the look out for problems, making quick corrections to avoid expensive losses of time, paper and ink. Throughout any print run, print operators must also regularly check sheets for any printing imperfections. As well as setting up and watching over print runs many press operators also have to perform machine maintenance, oiling and cleaning the presses and making minor repairs.

Machine operators' jobs and earnings differ from one place to another because of the different types of press they use. Small commercial print shops can be operated by one person and tend to have relatively small presses. These types of printers use machines that will print only one or two colors at a time. Operators who work with companies that use larger presses have assistants and helpers. Large newspaper, magazine, and book printers use in-line web presses, each of which need several press operators and press assistants. These presses are fed paper on large rolls up to 50 inches or more in width. The presses print the paper on both sides; they trim, assemble, score, fold the pages and count the finished sections as they come off the press.

The six main printing presses are:

These print methods all sound very confusing but they have all been developed to enable the transfer of ink onto an ever widening range of product surfaces!

Offset litho transfers an inked impression from a rubber-covered cylinder to paper or other material and is the most widely used printing process. Gravure uses the cells on an etched plate or cylinder. These cylinders are ‘inked' and pressed onto the paper. Flexography is a form of rotary printing in which ink is applied to a surface by a flexible rubber printing plate. This process uses a raised image area. Use of flexography is expected to increase over the next ten years. Other less widely used print processes include digital printing, electrostatic, and ink-jet printing. These are used for producing copies or duplicates, and speciality printing. They are used by in-house printing shops, and increasingly by commercial printers for short-run jobs and data printing where the print content often changes.

Most large printing plants have or will soon have computer controlled printing presses. These are connected to sophisticated instrument panels that allow the press operator to control the press operation by computer screen (see image). With this process of automation being adopted widely in printing the press operators tasks are becoming more and more computerised as time moves on.

Along with the widening use of modern technology in the print sector, electronic engravers are now often used in making the printing plates for illustrations. Colour illustrations create another problem, as they are usually printed as four separate colours - one on top of the other. This means four separate printing plates must be made. This process has again been simplified by the development of electronic colour scanners which can separate the colours and make the plates in one operation.

Skills and abilities that help you succeed in Machine Printing:

  • Good hand/eye co-ordination
  • Practical skills for solving problems
  • Time management skills
  • Able to concentrate for long periods
  • Self motivated
  • Team player
  • Responsible attitude
  • Desire to keep updating skills