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Showing posts from June, 2012

How To Make Printing Ink

  Introduction Printing ink is so much more than just the black stuff that you put on a page. It has been around for thousands of years, and it's been used in everything from newspaper presses to digital printers. As you can see, we're not talking about offset printing ink which is oil based. I want to have a little fun and talk about how you can make your own ink for your printer.  At home! Ready? Ingredients You will need the following ingredients: Soot (5 tbsp) : This is as purest as it gest. You can make the soot yourself by holding a glass up to a flame. This will allow you to slowly accumulate the soot. Water (2 tbsp): For the base of your ink, use distilled water so that you don't introduce any impurities into the mix. Distilled water is also easier to clean up than tap water because there are no minerals or residue left behind from tap water. Alcohol (2 tbsp) (grain alcohol): This ingredient works as a preservative for your ink and allows it to last for several mo

Web Press Folder Tip

Here is a great little innovation on one of our web presses that really helps eliminate folder problems.  First let's orientate ourselves with the above picture.  If you are at the folder of an offset web printing press, you would be looking at the bottom of the former board.  What I want you to look at is the device that is riding against the folded edge just as it goes down and leaves the former.  Take another look at the picture below. This is a great little innovation by Manroland .  I would be curious to know if other press manufacturers like Goss or Muller Martini have something similar, but for now I have only seen this on Manroland web presses.  Notice the bolt on the left of it.  You can manually adjust the pressure of this ski against the web as needed.  A simple feature, easy to imitate. What It Does The idler rollers at the base of the former board are used to even the tension and guide the web coming down the former board.  However quite often wh

Wages Continue to Rise for Offset Press Operators

I like statistics like this.  Above is a monthly graph of the average wage according to real job postings as they appear on indeed.com .  It shows the average wage of a web press operator against the average salary of jobs posted on their site.  The median wage is currently at about $40,000.  Not bad when you consider that this encompasses every position on the press. This graph is very reflective of the economic conditions.  When the economy tanked in 2010, wages for offset printers tumbled in a downward spiral until about July 2011.  The good news is that ever since then, wages are on the incline for web press operators. Now take a look at another graph from the same source below.  It shows something similar for sheetfed press operators .  Wages fell in the same way from the summer of 2010 to the fall of 2011.  The same recovery is being seen, albeit with some volatility, after July 2011.  Average wage is currently at $39,000.  Just a little under web press operators, but I