Printing Press Machine Operators, or Pressmen, prepare, operate, and maintain the printing presses in a print shop.

What they do.
Duties of printing machine operators vary according to the type of press they operate. Offset printing, or offset lithography, which transfers an inked impression from a printing plate to a rubber covered cylinder then to the paper or other material being imprinted, is the dominant type of printing. Offset is popular because of its consistent high-quality impressions, and it is usable on a wide range of printing surfaces including wood, cloth, leather, rough paper, cardboard, and plastics. And because the plates are quick and easy to produce and have a longer life than direct lithography presses. Other kinds of printing are: Flexography, Screen Printing, Relief Print, and Rotogravure. In addition to the major printing processes, plateless or non-impact processes are coming into general use. Plateless processes- including Digital, Electrostatic, and Ink Jet printing- are used for copying, duplicating, and document/specialty printing, usually by quick in-house print shops, and increasingly by commercial printers for short-run jobs and variable data printing. To prepare presses for printing, machine operators install and adjust the printing plate, adjust pressures, ink the presses, load paper, and adjust the press to the paper size. Press operators ensure that the paper meets the customers specifications, and adjust margins and the flow of ink according to the job. They then feed paper through the press cylinders and adjust feed and tension controls. However new technology becoming available skips all these steps and sends file directly to the press. While printing presses are running, press operators monitor their operation and keep the feeders well stocked. They make adjustments to correct uneven ink across the sheet, the speed of the paper feed, the flow of water, etc. If paper jams or tears and the press stops, operators work quickly to correct the problem to eliminate down time. Similarly, operators working with other high-speed presses constantly look for problems, making quick adjustments to avoid expensive losses of paper and ink. Throughout the run, operators must regularly pull sheets to check for any printing imperfections, though much of this quality checking is now being done by computers. In most print shops, press operators also perform preventative maintenance, by cleaning and oiling the presses, and making small repairs.

Education.
Most printing machine operators are trained on-the-job while they work as assistants or helpers to experienced operators. Beginning press operators load, unload, and clean presses. With time and training, they may move up to become fully qualified press operators on the type of equipment on which they trained. Apprenticeships, when they are offered by the employer, usually include on-the-job instruction and some related classroom training or correspondence school courses, and completion is based on the ability to demonstrate competency in operating equipment. Because of technical developments in the printing industry, courses are in chemistry, electronics, color theory, and physics are helpful. Printing machine operators may advance in pay and responsibility by working on a more complex printing press through experience and demonstrated ability, for example, a one-color sheet fed press operator may become a four-color sheet fed press operator. Press operators can also draw on their knowledge of press operations to become cost estimators, providing estimates of printing job costs to potential customers.

How much they make.
Median hourly earnings of print machine operators were $14.39 in May 2004. The middle 50 percent earned between $10.73 and $18.83 an hour. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $8.54, and the highest 10 percent earned over $23.06 an hour. Median hourly earnings in the industries employing the highest numbers of printing machine operators in May 2004 were:
Newspaper, periodical, book, and directory publishers: $16.46
Converted paper product manufacturing: $15.72
Printing and related support activities: $15.16
Plastics product manufacturing: $13.76
Advertising and related services:$12.68.

The basic wage rate for a printing machine operator usually depends on the complexity of the graphics and the number of colors he is expected to print as well as the complexity of the press and it’s size. Workers covered by union contracts in the newspaper industry generally have higher rates of pay than those who aren’t.

In 2006 there was approximately 30,700 printing companies in the United States, accounting for $112 billion, according to the 2006 US Industry & Market Outlook by Barnes Reports. Print jobs that move through the internet made up 12.5% of the total US Printing market in 2006, according to the research firm Info Trend/CAP Ventures.

Pros and cons.
Pros include: room for advancement, college isn’t required (but always helpful), jobs are plentiful (Printing machine operators held 191,000 jobs in 2004. Nearly half of all the operator jobs were in the printing industry.) pay isn’t bad. Cons include: overtime is very common, many press operators who work for newspapers work weekends, nights, and holidays to meet deadlines. Some of the chemicals used in the printing industries can cause skin burns and other health problems, heavy machinery is very dangerous and accidents are fairly common although safety measures are becoming better, employment of printing machine operators is expected to grow more slowly than average through 2014.

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