On April 15, 2019, Our Digital Media Foundations class had planned a trip to the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) Print Shop Located near Wall Street in downtown Manhattan. The United Federation of Teachers is a labor union representing a majority of the supportive staff working in NYC public schools including over 75,000 teachers, 19,000 classroom paraprofessionals, and also counting a plethora of more school secretaries, attendance teachers, guidance counselors, psychologists, social workers, adult education teachers, administrative law judges, nurses, laboratory technicians, speech therapists, and 64,000 retired members. Our class was specifically taken to tour their printing facility that takes the organizations printing jobs as well as outsourced ones. To imagine the magnitude and scale of the work done in a print facility for mass production, getting a close-up look into the different stations and machines used was a real appreciative opportunity to consider the world of print more seriously.
The “Epson Stylus Pro 9800 Extra Wide Printer 44″ brings forth a challenging standard to the world of artistic / photographic large format prints with the highest quality of detail and finishing. Enabled by its specialized inks UltraChrome K3 and Epson Micro Piezo™ advanced specific printhead helps produce these finishings on poster sized documents.
One of the major pieces of equipment seen was one that prepared several prepackaged mail into envelopes at once. It had the ability to fold paper into envelopes and seal them in on one continuous factory stream.
This heavy duty guillotine cuts several dense stacks of paper with pressured perfection. All of its coordinated measurements are recorded into the computer and all the worker has to do is arrange them onto the cutting board slots. Although the machine has the power to cut ones hand effortlessly, there are highly sensitive sensors in place that prevents any major accidents from happening – thus fully stopping production if anything is blocking the way.
The whole trip has made the class collectively appreciate the opportunity to look through a really close lens how much work goes behind the pieces we used to take for granted, and quite possibly even consider printing as a career choice.
