Press Life Preserver

For minimum day-to-day operation and clean-up hassles, follow these five steps to long-term letterpress maintenance.

by Jessica Millward, Associate Editor

1. The line-up

The path to relatively painless letterpress printing begins before the operator even reports for duty. How the press's daily "To Do" list is constructed plays a major part in the number of cleaning and changing procedures required, and therefore serves as a great opportunity to conserve print "energy." Ko-Pack Service Engineer Pat Bowdy counts job planning as the printer's first shot at the shortest downtime possible. He recommends configuring job sequence to minimize color changes, as well as planning ahead to use solvents compatible to proposed inks and rolls.