PRACTICAL REPORT,2013

-Acknowledgements

            Before starting this Field work practical,I never imagined if this success will be achieved.Today it becomes the reality.Therefore,I would like to

give thanks to my God for answering my Prays and making me healthy through all this season of hard working.Glory to God!

Again,a lot of thanks go to:

-        My parents,Mr. & Mrs. Kamulali for their support and care.

-        My relatives who lives in Dar es salaam for support.

-        The Principal,Ardhi Institute Tabora, Mr.Biseko Musiba who played a great role to ensure my success and well-being.

-        The Ardhi Institute Tabora members of Staff,particularly Mr.Salum Majemlo our director sopervisor.

-        All students of the Ardhi Institute Tabora who worked together with me in this Field work practical.

-        All workers of the Farmers Education Unit,particularly Mr.H.L.Nyangi the Head of the Farmers’ Education Unit(FEU)

All those played part in this success, each at his/her own part.Their unity and care gave me the image of how life goes wherever unity is.

               

                                                      Thank you,God bless you all!

-Preamble:

            Before completing their 1^st academic  year studies,students of The Ardhi Institute Tabora have to go for Field work practicals.This is the time when they get a real practice on what they have been learning theoretically in class lectures.

Therefore, the 29^th of April 2013 was the first day when this programme started.As one of them, directed to work at THE FARMERS EDUCATION UNIT PRINTING PRESS which is under Ministry of Agriculture,Food security and Cooperation located in Dar es salaam,I spent my time effectively in practicals,and the following is a general report of what I have been doing.  This report will be divided into the following parts:

·                     Introduction

·                     General report(The printing process)

·                     Summary

·                     Recommendations

·                     Conclusion

1.INTRODUCTION:

What is Graphic Arts and Printing?

            Graphic Arts and Printing (G.A.P) is one of the courses found at The Ardhi Institute Tabora. It creates to students,the ability to design various layouts of print documents such as Books,Magazines,Leaflets,Posters and other official documents which requires special technics to achieve their eventual shapes.After designing,the student is thereafter concerned with production of the designed materials on hard-copy,which can be easily displayed to public legibly. This is a process; which we call Printing.

            During this Field work practical,we succeeded to perform various activities concerning this the process,but all of it had to end-up in one room,called “Printing room”. The Printing process was carried out in a series of activities,starting with PRE-PRESS, then PRESS,BINDING and POSTING.

2.THE PRINTING PROCESS

PRE-PRESS

            Pre-press means all activities which are carried out before starting the process of transferring an image from the printing surface to the substrate.This included:

·                     Information gathering

·                     Preparation of film

·                     Film-Plate assembly

·                     Plate exposure

·                     Gumming

·                     Plate mounting.

Information gathering:

This is the process of collecting all the data and information required for printing. The collection of these information was done in different ways using different tools. Information could be gathered by aid of Camera to catch images which have to be printed on sheets.Sometimes information could be gathered  by direct interview,then preparing a script which will be taken to editor for preparation of good and suitable document that will suit the requirements of the reader.

Once information has been edited,it was taken to designer who was responsible for preparation of print layout and Dummy.Dummy is one of a set of model pages with text and illustrations pasted into place to direct the printer how the pages will appear after printing.For example,for a sixteen pages book the dummy will look as shown in illustration below.

                       

Preparation of film

After a dummy is prepared,it had to be transferred as an image to the film. There were two types of film which were commonly being used,namely;

·                     Laser film and

·                     Positive film.

-                    A laser film had no Light sensitive Silver halides,therefore an image was to be transferred direct  from Computer to the film by an electronic printer.

-                    In case of Positive film,the image was made by normal exposure methods carried out in Darkroom using a two room camera. We used this type of film to transfer images to plate for printing during our field work,but the film was already having processed.So we didn’t practice how to expose the film.

Film-Plate assembly

In this process,the film with its positive image on a transparent background,was placed on the surface of the un-exposed plate.When assembling film and plate,the register marks needed much consideration,otherwise the image could be out of page margins.

This was also done in Darkroom under safe light since the plate becomes distorted when exposed to normal light,due to presence of silver halides on its surface.  

Plate exposure

            Then this assembly was put in a contact vacuum frame for exposure.Then a vacuum was applied,and then exposing the plate for two minutes.After exposure the plate with its film was taken while still screened from light,for developing.

            During development,a developing chemical called Developer was applied thoroughly on the plate surface while washing lightly the surface of the plate to remove the non-image areas.This Developer also harden the image areas and stops the sensitivity of silver halides on them upon exposure to light. Time was to be considered,as too long washing time could result into destruction of plate, while too short washing time could result into incomplete removal of non-image areas.

Gumming

            Gumming is the process of applying a protective layer using a gumming solution on the surface of the processed film.

 This gumming helped to protect the image from scratches during printing and after or before printing when the plate was not in use.

Plate mounting

            When the plate was already prepared for use,the next step was to mount it on the circumference of the plate cylinder,ready for printing. According to the machine we used,we mounted the plate by gripping its sides with bevelled clips. After gripping one of its sides the plate cylinder was allowed to rotate slowly to allow the operator to fix its end. Then the plate was ready for work.

PRESS

            Press means the process of a machine to transfer image from the printing surface(plate) to the substrate(paper).This included a number of steps.

Machine specifications

            There were many types of machines at our Press but only one was functioning. This was ADAST  DOMINANT 715C. This was a one-colour sheet fed machine with low delivery. This machine was for printing sheets of maximum size of A₂. The following are some of its specifications:

Machine name	ADAST DOMINANT 715C
Machine type	One colour sheet-fed with low delivery
Maximum sheet size	485×660mm
Minimum sheet size	290×310mm
Plate dimensions	530×650×0.3mm
Blanket dimensions	560×664×1.9mm
Production speed	10,000 impressions/hour

                        

Feed pile

This is a place where the stack of papers was assembled. In case of ADAST DOMINANT 715C the feed pile was at the left hand side from the operator side. During printing the sheets moved from the feed pile one after another. Before movement of sheets,the jets from left of the stack blowed air to help separate the sheets. Then suckers from above the stack sucked a paper into position for transfer grippers to take it.

Feed board

Feed board is a flat bed with thin rotating flat rubber bands on which sheets slided. According to ADAST DOMINANT 715C,the feed board was at small angle from the horizontal to enable easy transfer of the sheets.

Transfer grippers

            These are small holders which catch the sheet soon after the suckers have brought it into position.These grippers held one side of the sheet,pulling it into impression.The transfer grippers had movements at the same speed as suckers to maintain uniformity of sheet transfer.

Off-setting

            The water rollers applied moisture on the plate so that during inking only required parts received ink. According to nature of plate,the image areas were water repellent.Therefore water  only spread over non-image areas.

            Upon inking,the non-image areas which received water were now ink repellent,hence ink being applied over image areas.

Then the image was offset onto blanket cylinder from plate.This is the general meaning of offset printing.

            A blanket cylinder is a circular drum covered with rubber,which transfers image from lithographic plate to substrate.The advantage of using rubber was because it received ink readily.This offset or blanket cylinder was lying between plate cylinder and impression cylinder. Its arrangement was as in the following illustration.

After transfer of image to blanket,the image was now ready to be transfered to substrate.

Impression

            Impression is the action where force is exerted by the Impression cylinder to the substrate,against the Blanket cylinder which carries image. During impression, the substrate passed between Impression cylinder and Blanket cylinder.Due to the exerted force the substrate removed an image from the Blanket and ran to delivery as a printed sheet.

Delivery

            Delivery is the collection of printed sheets awaiting for bindery.After impression, the sheets were being transferred by ‘transfer chain’ to delivery stack.The ADAST DOMINANT 715C had its delivery at the right side from operator side. This side is opposite to Feed pile side.

Folding

Then after delivery the following work was folding. We folded sheets in three signatures which was the preparation of a sixteen-paged book.Signature means the number of folds per each sheet.  After folding the sheet in three signatures it looked as shown in illustration below.

BINDING:

            Binding was where the printed product was finished. The huge stacks of ready-printed sheets were cut and put together so that the pages fall in a correct order. Pages were also bound together by staples, in this step of the process.

In the Industry, a machine called a stitcher took the folded printed sheets (called press signatures) and collated them together. Then stitches (staples) were inserted into the signatures through the backbone, binding them together.

The illustration above shows some types of binding but among those we used the saddle stitching type. This was done by inserting stapples through the backbone of the book.It is shown on the top left side of the illustration above.

TRIMMING

Trimming is the process of cutting-off the unwanted non-printed sides of the folded sheets,producing a finished book.

The components concerned with this in the stitcher machine were the knives, which trimmed the paper to the final delivered size. The product was then ready to be shipped to the end destination.

POSTING/DELIVERY

            This is when the printed material is sent to market. In our press we printed books. Until the end of our practicals,we didn’t post the product,as it was for special official use.

3. SUMMARY

            Generally,what we learnt was all about how to print books.This began from collecting the information used in printing,then preparing printing plates,mounting them on Lithographic machine,operating the machine to get products,folding the products, ending with binding them.This process required much care and attention,as safety of both operator and machine was of much importance.

            Also,at all four stages of printing, meaning Pre-press,Press,Binding and Delivery,continous control of machine and substrate was of vital importance,otherwise an unexpected result could be met.

RECOMMENDATIONS

            As a Graphic arts and Printing student,as well as succeeding in my Field study,I faced a lot of difficulties,therefore I recommend,that:

i.            No doubt that there must be a new,complete and updated syllabus for the Graphic arts and Printing course. This is because in some of the printing presses we found modern,automated and computerized machines,which differ in operation from what we learn at the Institute.

ii.            The amount of Field practical allowance should be increased to meet the daily increasing life difficulties all over the country. There are so many problems which we could have avoided if the allowance could be satisfying.

iii.            The Institute should change the now-used system of sitting for annual examinations soon after Field practicals.This always results into most of the students failing their annual examinations,just because they spent a lot of their revising time doing press jobs.

iv.            It is very important to repair our machines so that students will become aware of operating them,instead of waiting for field study practicals.

If the above mentioned are done,I hope success may be achieved to make the course well defined.Otherwise,maximum efforts must be added as soon as possible,especially during this era of Science and Technology,in order to overcome these challenges.

CONCLUSION

      With much thanks to all who supported us,including Ardhi Institute Tabora members of staff, the head of Farmers Education Unit(The Principal Agricultural Officer) Mr.  H.L.Nyangi,all workers of the Farmers Education Unit (FEU) press,and all others not mentioned here above, I would like to recognize the participation of the Principal,Ardhi Institute Tabora,Mr. Biseko Musiba.

The Principal coordinated to maximum extent,the field practicals,he never gave -up regardless all obstacles he found.This gave us hope all time believing that one day we shall come to an end.Now we are!

Thak you all, I’m presenting!

                        Prepared by:

                                              Steven Kamulali,Graphic Arts and Printing first year,2012/2013.