1. February 16, 2010 Press Operator
What a press operator does:
Printing press operators prepare, operate, and maintain the printing presses in a
pressroom. Duties of press operators vary according to the type of press they operate—
offset lithography, gravure, flexography, screen printing, or letterpress. Offset
lithography, which transfers an inked impression from a rubber-covered cylinder to
paper or other material, is the dominant printing process. With gravure, the recesses on
an etched plate or cylinder are inked and pressed to paper. Flexography is a form of
rotary printing in which ink is applied to the surface by a flexible rubber printing plate
with a raised image area. Gravure and flexography should increase in use, but
letterpress, in which an inked, raised surface is pressed against paper, will be phased
out. In addition to the major printing processes, plateless or nonimpact processes are
coming into general use. Plateless processes—including electronic, electrostatic, and
ink-jet printing—are used for copying, duplicating, and document and specialty printing,
usually by quick and in-house printing shops.
This is a example of a job posting:
Are you the best Press Operator out there?
Well established locally owned printing company has an opportunity for an experienced
small format printing press operator. Joining our team of professional brings a benefit
package that includes the following:
• 2 weeks paid vacation
• 7 paid holidays
• 3 personal days per year
• Health Insurance (co-paid by company including family coverage)
• Life insurance
You will be working on a Ryobi 3302 (two color press) and a Ryobi 2800 (one color )
Salary of a press operator:
Press Operator - All Widths 25th%ile Median 75th%ile
the United States $51,412 $54,644 $57,885
By: Mikayla Boehm
2. February 16, 2010 Press Operator
Training to be a press operator:
Education and training. Beginning press operators load, unload, and clean presses. With time and
training, they may become fully qualified to operate that type of press. Operators can gain
experience on more than one kind of printing press during the course of their career.
Experienced operators will periodically receive retraining and skill updating. For example, printing
plants that change from sheet-fed offset presses to digital presses have to retrain the entire press
crew because skill requirements for the two types of presses are different.
Facts:
In 1454, Gutenberg invented the printing press with movable wooden type, an innovation that made
it much cheaper to print. His invention is very important, as it brought books to the masses.
However, the first crude printing press was probably invented centuries before in China.
It took almost two years to produce Shakespeare's First Folio. The First Folio was printed in 1623
and was the first time that Shakespeare's plays had been published together.
Only the most educated and rich people had books. Then they had the power to teach all the
regular people just what they wanted them to know.
Johannes Gutenberg adapted a wine press to make the first printing press in about 1439. Instead of
pressing grapes, the equipment pressed metal letter forms onto sheets of paper, parchment, or
vellum. Gutenberg was a professional goldsmith who used his metalworking skills to make the first
set of movable type in Europe!
people have been pressing olives and grapes for millennia, and medieval Europeans had adapted
the press for bookbinding, drying laundry - and paper. The bookbinding and paper-drying
By: Mikayla Boehm
3. February 16, 2010 Press Operator
connections are crucial because a budding printer would routinely see and work with presses.
This is some stuff you do as a press operator:
Read work orders, checking for special instructions from customers or staff.
Examine proofs to see if there are errors or if any adjustments need to be made.
Determine ink, type of paper, and equipment needed for the job.
Select and install printing plates, rollers, or cylinders.
Set up, check, and adjust controls or equipment based on job requirements.
Accept orders, calculate and quote prices, and receive payment from customers.
Mix colors or ink and fill reservoirs.
Load paper or other printing materials.
Push buttons to start printing presses.
Monitor feeding and printing operations.
Make adjustments to presses or stop presses when print quality is bad.
Pack and label finished products.
Clean and repair equipment or plates after printing.
Fill out production log sheets. Document the amount and type of supplies used.
Direct and monitor work of apprentices or other workers.
May type or input instructions into automated machinery.
By: Mikayla Boehm
