National

Set up or operate various types of printing machines, such as offset, letterset, intaglio, or gravure presses or screen printers to produce print on paper or other materials.

Sample of reported job titles: Pressman, Press Operator, 2nd Pressman, Printing Press Operator, Printer, Offset Pressman, 1st Pressman, Printing Pressman, Press Helper, Feeder

Tasks

• Inspect and examine printed products for print clarity, color accuracy, conformance to specifications, and external defects.
• Push buttons, turn handles or move controls and levers to start and control printing machines.
• Reposition printing plates, adjust pressure rolls, or otherwise adjust machines to improve print quality, using knobs, handwheels, or hand tools.
• Set and adjust speed, temperature, ink flow, and positions and pressure tolerances of equipment.
• Examine job orders to determine details such as quantities to be printed, production times, stock specifications, colors, and color sequences.
• Select and install printing plates, rollers, feed guides, gauges, screens, stencils, type, dies, and cylinders in machines according to specifications, using hand tools.
• Monitor feeding, printing, and racking processes of presses to maintain specified operating levels and to detect malfunctions, making adjustments as necessary.
• Operate equipment at slow speed to ensure proper ink coverage, alignment, and registration.
• Load, position, and adjust unprinted materials on holding fixtures or in equipment loading and feeding mechanisms.
• Pour or spread paint, ink, color compounds, and other materials into reservoirs, troughs, hoppers, or color holders of printing units, making measurements and adjustments to control color and viscosity.

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Tools & Technology

Tools used in this occupation:

Technology used in this occupation: