Description
Set up and operate flexographic presses to produce labels, packaging, and other web-fed products. Prepare plates and inks, configure anilox and web handling, and run, monitor, and adjust the press to meet quality, efficiency, and safety standards.
- • Review job tickets for quantities, substrates, anilox and plate specs, colors, and special instructions.
- • Thread the web and set unwind/rewind, web guides, tension, and nip settings.
- • Enter press parameters for impression, register, dryer temperature, and line speed.
- • Load rolls of specified substrate and adjust for width, caliper, and roll direction.
- • Monitor automated register, web inspection, and press diagnostics; respond to alerts.
- • Mix and match water-based, solvent, or UV inks and charge the ink system.
- • Mount plates with proper tape, align on cylinders, and set impression and register.
- • Start the press and pull proofs to check density, dot gain, alignment, and registration.
- • Verify substrates, coatings, and inks meet job and regulatory specifications.
- • Schedule jobs and track workflow using production or MIS software.
- • Direct or monitor press crews and assign changeover or cleanup tasks.
- • Archive job settings, color data, and files to enable accurate reruns.
- • Maintain time, waste, and production records.
- • Monitor pressroom temperature, humidity, and curing efficiency; adjust as needed.
- • Adjust digital files and step-and-repeat for traps, screens, and color separations.
- • Set ink pumps and control viscosity or pH to maintain consistent ink laydown.
- • Change photopolymer plates, sleeves, anilox rolls, or cylinders as required.
- • Clean anilox rolls, ink chambers, pumps, and plates after press runs.
- • Clean, lubricate, and make minor repairs to presses using hand tools.
- • Pull and inspect random web samples for color, registration, and defects; make corrections.
- • Import jobs to the press console or RIP and verify separations and barcodes.
- • Track inventory of inks, plates, anilox rolls, doctor blades, and substrates; request supplies.
- • Set up or operate inline units such as die-cutting, varnish, lamination, corona treatment, slitting, or UV/IR dryers.
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
