What Does The Printing Press Do?

What is a printing press?

A printing press refers to a machine that produces books, newspapers, etc. in mass, by pressing a surface covered in ink onto paper. It makes it possible to get a large number of uniform copies done in mass production in short period. Modern offset presses operate at speeds up to 18,000 sheets per hour, or 300 sheets per minute. 

Some well-known printing press brands include: Heidelberg, Koenig & Bauer, Manroland, Mitsubishi and Komori, etc.

What does the printing press do?

The printing press is a machine that prints text and images in mass production. Its working principle is: first make the text and image to be printed into a printing plate, install it on the printing machine, and then apply ink to the the printing plate by manual or printing machine, and then directly or indirectly transfer the text or images to the surface of paper or other substrates (such as textiles, metal plates, plastics, leather, wood, glass, and ceramics), that is to replicate the same printed matter as the printing plate. 

How does the printing press work?

Take offset printers, the most common type of commercial press, for example. An offset printer generally consists three cylinders: Plate cylinder, Blanket cylinder and Impression cylinder.

The thin Plate cylinder used in the offset printing process has a plastic or aluminium plate around it. Each plate is customized according to the text and images to be printed onto the paper. The plate cylinder has been pre-treated to have the images attract ink and repel water. When the plate cylinder spins, it will make contact with rollers that apply the ink and water.

The Offset blanket cylinder has a rubber blanket around it and turns in the opposite direction to the plate cylinder. When both cylinders roll against each other, water is squeezed away and ink is transferred onto the rubber blanket. This creates a mirror image of the ink design.

The third one, Impression cylinder, made of clean steel, turns in the opposite direction to the blanket cylinder. The impression cylinder transfers the ink as it presses paper against the rubber blanket.