Getting to Know the Basics of Printing Machines

The print gets its due, due to the functioning of a printing machine, fondly called as the printing press. Invented in the 1940 as an advanced version of screw presses by Johannes Gutenberg from the city of Mainz, the printing press managed to usher modernity and industrial revolution of a different kind, the intellectual one.

In terms of a definition, a printing press is a mechanical device or a printing machine which manages to transfer the ink via the application of pressure on to an inked surface (resting on a print medium). The print medium can be anything from cloth, paper and even mediums which are no longer found. Earlier versions of printing presses include typographic hand-printing, hand-copying and other unconventional formats.



The working of the basic printing press is discussed as below. Main parts of a printing machine include the following:
  • Type
  • Platen
  • Frisket
  • Tympan

For a layman’s understanding, a type is like the metal used to press to create the desired letters (via impression aided with pressure). A platen is a metal plate (flat) which gets pressed against a medium (mostly paper) to make an impression (printing) while frisket is a material which protects the areas of a work from unintentional change. Alternatively, a tympan is a sheet of oiled paper fastened to the face of the printing press

The structure of these machines is vertical (standing mechanism) with length, width and height of approximately 7 feet, 3 feet and 7 feet respectively. This device uses a set known as: type that is nothing but a set of components which help to reproduce the elements in a document. There is a frame which accommodates a type arranged systematically into the pages, and is placed on a bed (normally beds are made of flat stones).

The paper is held between a small frisket and a tympan (two frames are covered) and is made to lie on the surface of the type. The bed is rolled (under the platen) with the help of a windlass mechanism and the printing is done via a screw which is able to transmit the pressure via the platen.

Now the screw is made to reverse along with turning the windlass again (the frisket and tympan are opened and raised apart from removing the printed sheet). Printing machines use a variety of sources for operation or power.

Printing machines started a revolution which resulted in spreading of knowledge and wisdom via books. Success of the printing machines is evident from the fact that apart from the blue blooded royalty, most of the richest people living in those times happened to be publishers who owned printing machines on a large scale.

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