Cheryl Burrows

Essay #2

Word count-1000 (I’m getting closer!)

June 15, 1999

Specific Purpose: To inform people about the occupation of being a printer.

Rollers, Fountains, and Deliveries

Printing is an occupation I did not intentionally pursue. My first job was with a company that produced the billing statements for various fields in the medical profession. I punched the holes in receipts that were slipped on a ledger board. The receipts looked like shingles overlapping each other with a carbon strip on the back of them to pass the writing through the receipt onto the ledger beneath it. The work was repetitious and had to be performed exactly. Each receipt was numbered. They were positioned three on a sheet of paper, eight and one-half by nineteen, in triplicate. The punch machine could hold up to ten sheets or thirty numbers at a time. The numbering system was not sequential to each sheet. For instance, if you were numbering one thousand receipts. A sheet with three numbers would contain the numbers 1, 334, and 1000. Extras were provided in case I positioned the sheets incorrectly into the punch. Spoiling more than the extras provided would result in a strict reprimand. The process to print more sheets was a tedious task, which I will explain later. I enjoyed running the punch press, although it meant being on my feet for eight hours a day standing in one place. I would daydream about what I could buy with my next paycheck. The earning potential on that machine was limited and I quickly reached the top of my labor grade. When the opportunity presented itself, I bid on a job in the pressroom.

Operating a printing press is a task that has been handed down since Benjamin Franklin printed the notes he sold to Europe raising the necessary capital to construct the newly founded United States of America. Printing was an apprenticed trade. From scribes to present-day digital images the skill and craftsmanship is learned on the job and through years of experience. What was once hand engraved images set in reverse, to the operation of the multimillion-dollar machines that I later progressed to, the printing process is referred to as a craft.

The opportunity for advancement in this field is based on the ability of the individual. If you are willing to work eight to twelve hours a day handling sheets of paper. If you can handle the stress of knowing the appearance of the printed material will make or break the company you work for; this is the job for you. As I mentioned, I progressed at a rapid pace. The work ethic that was instilled in me by my parents, my own interest in the process, and the money, which can be earned (as much as twenty-two dollars an hour), were reasons for my advancement.

Not only is a press-operator responsible for the finished product. They are also responsible for the machine that creates the piece. The largest machine I ran was a four-unit-perfect-offset-press. What this means in regular vocabulary is the machine was capable of printing four different colors at once, on both sides of the sheet of paper. The look of the machine would be enough to intimidate anyone. It was taller than I was. Each unit is approximately 4 feet long with a four-foot feeder, and a four-foot delivery. The feeder is the end of the press that paper is feed into the machine. At the top of the press is a fountain, the area that stores the ink. Then the ink passes onto to rollers, a rolling pin like object with the surface made of rubber and steel. The rollers oscillate, meaning they don’t follow the direct path beneath each other. They move from side to side so that the ink will distribute evenly on them. There are usually twenty to thirty of these rollers. The rollers have to have pressure between them maintained to an exactness of millimeters. The ink then comes in contact with a plate. A plate can be a piece of aluminum or a variety of different substrates. The main component between the ink rollers and the plate is water and an image that is photochemically etched onto the surface of the plate. The plate is mounted on a cylinder. It has to be straightened, tightened, and positioned by the press operator. If the machine has more than one unit, the units have to be lined up so that each image will print exactly on top of each other. The image with ink from the rollers is then transferred from the plate onto a rubber blanket beneath it. The blanket is a rubber surface that covers a printing cylinder. The blanket is about seventy-eight hundredths of an inch thick. The pressure between the blanket and plate also has to be maintained within millimeters of each other. Finally, the paper passes between the blanket and a transfer drum, offsetting the image onto the paper. The printed piece is dropped onto a stack in the delivery. In the delivery, there sometimes are infrared heaters, which sets the ink. In addition, spray powder resembling talcum is sprayed onto each sheet to prevent the image from transferring onto the backside being dropped into the delivery. This all happens at the rate of 15,000 sheets an hour.

The press-operator stands at a console, which has become more electronic as the years have passed. The console has all the ink fountain and water controls on it. Slide buttons open and close the inkwells, which increases the revolution of the rollers, and positions the cylinders. The thickness of the ink is measured with a device, a denstrometer that transmits light through the ink on the sheet. These numeric measurements help the press-operator control the color of the image on the sheet. Magenta, black, cyan, and yellow are the transparent inks that make up the color spectrum. These colors are the components in a photo-quality image.

I have stood with Larry Zach beside me as he press proofed the image as it rolled off the press. I can’t draw a straight line, but I could contain the color the artist needed to make his print a success. I enjoyed working for printing companies and the occupation that I fell into. The earning potential is above average. I did want to advance beyond operating a press. My education stood in my way, which is why I’m pursuing a college degree. Printing is an occupation as old as the printed word itself. I found it interesting, challenging, and giving me the countless opportunities.