New Printer - What to teach?

[Maxie]

We are employing two new printers, they know nothing, have never worked in silk screen before.
Does anyone have a list or would like to make recommendations what we need to teach them so they can operate an automatic.
In our place they will also have to help closing and washing screens.
I want to make a list and give my main printer a bonus when they know everything on the list.

[Prince Art]

First lessons are probably: load the shirts straight on the pallets, and pull them off without smudging the ink. Then, do it faster.

When I first started out, I remember being shown how to load & pull. I was then given a stack of shirts, an empty auto, & shown how to operate the dwell time. I then loaded & unloaded over & over until I could decrease the dwell time to something reasonable. This was done in multiple sessions, whenever the auto was free. When the press was needed for jobs, they'd send me off to learn other tasks. Cleaning & reclaiming came pretty early on, too.

[CBCB]

I have never hired anyone with screen printing experience, so I have trained many people from scratch.

Usually I start them in the darkroom so they can see how processes work. Not necessarily to understand screen printing but so that they understand HOW we do things, when to ask for help, things like that.

But recently I have needed help on press way more than darkroom. So my last guy went straight to the press day one. Now I don’t really see an advantage to darkroom first. My next guy will go straight to press, and then darkroom training when they’re settled in.

So to answer your question kinda depends on that. Do you want them to become an operator ASAP?

If that’s the case the order I tried to show my last guy stuff was like this:

Catching & stacking. So they learn to read the invoice, see quantities, styles etc. So they can see how we move from the end of an order to the start of another one, since setting up is the main goal for an operator in my opinion.

Then I get them helping pull shirts off the press. Unloading is a big help to the lead operator so the trainee is still useful while getting this experience. They’re working closer to the main operator here too.

Tearing down the press is next. Taking the screens out. It’s kinda the opposite of loading screens for setup so this is good experience to have.

This should be doable in the first day or two. If they don’t have all this stuff figured out then probably not going to ever be a solid fit. But if they are doing well then the next processes they learn go like this:

Loading shirts. The lead operator is still setting up the job but now they can rotate their lunch breaks. Big bonus there.

Loading the press. Like getting the screens and tools in, and still letting the lead operator do the registration.

And then registration. Because at this point they can pretty much do all other aspects of the job besides set it up. Once they are able to register some simple jobs we let them set up some underbases or whatever. And eventually they’re setting up everything.


I gotta say though that this all depends on good systems around all these processes. You don’t want to let someone set up a job if the person approving it isn’t able to spot setup errors. It’s hard to explain the flash if you don’t have guidelines for what to expect. You can’t get an approval if we’re not all on the same page about how smooth the white should be.


Still I am basically brand new to ALL OF THIS but it seems to be working. I think the biggest struggles we have still is teaching people how to decide on print order. I’ve thought about making that decision in the art output stage, but operators still would need to know how to fix a mistake. So I’ve always had them decide Print order themselves based on what they think is best quality and then fastest run time.

So for me to consider a new operator as ready to go, they’d need to be able to catch, unload, tear down, load tees, load the press, register screens, and troubleshoot prints for approval. Last step I think is the only one where experience is a critical ingredient. Everything else is made easier by processes and standards.

And lately we have been working super hard on a smooth flow for setting up the press. Having a flow chart for setups makes the training even easier.

 

My biggest sense of achievement is that these new guys have already made notes on our setup flow to improve it. Every time they have an error they reflect back to the flow and see where they could have caught it or watched for it. Every time they have a question they understand that we need to improve the process and eliminate the variation.

Anyway, sorry for the novel but I hope that helps! Still pretty new to the biz but I think about this stuff all the time.

[Maxie]

Thanks for the replies, I like the idea of loading blank shirts.
CBCB can you you please load the chart as an attachment, look so interesting but I cannot read it.

[CBCB]

Thanks for the replies, I like the idea of loading blank shirts.
CBCB can you you please load the chart as an attachment, look so interesting but I cannot read it.

Dang, sorry, uploaded that from Tapatalk. It's attached here! This should be a bit more clear. It's our setup flow chart, but I wouldn't say we train in this order.

I never understood cycling the empty press. Maybe because we only have one auto... I always just get them unloading first, and then loading a real job when it comes up. Maybe they will start with something easy like totes.
My thinking is that I don't want someone to be super good at loading/unloading but not super good at watching the friggen print. Take it slow a couple days, take your time, and then slowly crank up the speed as they get some more experience.

[Prince Art]

... I never understood cycling the empty press. ...

It's to train how to load shirts straight, and not put out crooked prints on real jobs. My boss was not interested in people fidgeting around getting the shirt straight during production runs. He demonstrated proper technique with no wasted hand motions, and wanted that skill to be developed quickly, so that the fast, efficient loading would soon become muscle memory. The goal of training was to be a capable solo press op ASAP after hire. (And it was only part of the overall training program.)

[CBCB]

... I never understood cycling the empty press. ...

It's to train how to load shirts straight, and not put out crooked prints on real jobs. My boss was not interested in people fidgeting around getting the shirt straight during production runs. He demonstrated proper technique with no wasted hand motions, and wanted that skill to be developed quickly, so that the fast, efficient loading would soon become muscle memory. The goal of training was to be a capable solo press op ASAP after hire. (And it was only part of the overall training program.)

I think you missed my point, or you only read the part of my post that you quoted? I clearly understand the point, just don’t understand the path to get there. Here’s my logic again:

We have one press. Even if we had two though, wouldn’t one press spinning full out and one press spinning slowly for training yield more prints than one press spinning full out and other press with no prints on it? Or not?

I feel like with actual supervision and pointers you can get up to pro level pretty quick. Just going by yourself doesn’t get you any feedback from the prints or another person. And comes at the cost of the press making $0 revenue instead of at least some.

I don’t recommend leaving a new guy to print and load an order at full pace. Actually I said that’s my biggest concern. You get a guy on press who can load well but isn’t watching the rest of the process.

Best training I ever got was on a production line where I was someone’s helper doing tiny parts of the job (just loading a shirt under their supervision) in real production environment. Eventually after a week I had mastered every small part of the process.

I can’t see it being worth shutting a press down to blindly load shirts and not even be able to tell if the print is straight or not (there’s no print!! Lol) instead of bringing someone up to speed slowly. Day 2 the guys are usually loading really well and that’s with no press being down. Maybe some minor spoilage but you have someone right there checking the loading. Haven’t had a problem where the new guy makes even 5 crooked prints. Take’r slow and let’em grow.




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[RICK STEFANICK]

Teach them the fundamentals of screen printing. Pressure, angle, speed, off contact, proper registration, flash times. THE BEST AUTO PRINTERS WE HAVE STARTED AS MANUAL PRINTERS. They troublsoot much better. Also a little screen room, ink dept exposure helps dramatically. mesh, ink viscosity etc. ALL FUNDAMENTALS. i have personally trained alot of printers in 35 years. I cannot stress the fundamentals enough.

[bimmridder]

Rick, I'm going the opposite direction as you. Even though I don't have a manual press in my shop (Functioning) and only myself and maybe one other guy know how to print manually, I believe if you learn on an auto, you'll be better on a manual. It's a lot harder to "cheat" on an auto. You can't say, "I'll just pull a little to the left to fix the registration issue" or "I'll just adjust my angle from shirt to shirt"on an auto. Sure, you can learn poor technique on an auto. But teach how to print properly on the auto and they won't learn how to cheat on the manual. Just thought I'd ruffle some feathers.

[RICK STEFANICK]

Good point Dave. I teach with all the same variables. We use the sAme squeegie durometers, mesh etc. and the printers are not allowed to use the bad habits like a push /pull. Regardless of the press . I say teach the fundamentals.

[CBCB]

Good point Dave. I teach with all the same variables. We use the sAme squeegie durometers, mesh etc. and the printers are not allowed to use the bad habits like a push /pull. Regardless of the press . I say teach the fundamentals.

If you could sum up those variables how would you do it? Been trying to dial this in, the ‘troubleshooting’ aspect of setup can kill our setup times. But some operators just touch a couple things and boom. Here’s how I’ve been trying to explain things and give a guideline, lemme know what y’all think??

Off contact, just enough that the screen is releasing from the print within about an inch of the squeegee?

Speed, if flood is the same as stroke, then as fast as it can go before the ink gets big bubbles and isn’t shearing clean?

Angle, as steep as it can be to get minimal deflection on the squeegee. 6ish for tees, but more for fleece?

And pressure, just enough to kiss the platen after the variables above are sorted out? And ink is warmed up..


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[Sbrem]

I was a first hire, and was brought in to print, with no hand printing experience, but had run a Filbar flat-bed for a year, and made screens as well. So, first, was set up a one color print on the press, lined up, centered, squared. Then make a few test pulls on test shirts lying around to start to get the feel. Then onto putting the shirt on the platen correctly. I printed a small job, then picked them up out of the box, folded and checked against the order, etc. Neither of the owners were printers in particular, so they really wanted me producing as soon as I could. After that, it was onto multi-color jobs, printing on nylon, just learning as I went.

Steve

[tonypep]

Everything

[bimmridder]

I also like to train them in other positions, but before they start printing they work the dryer for a little while, a half day maybe. That way they can see why little things matter. "We lay the shirts on the belt like this so it's easier for the person catching to do their job." "Get a thumb print on the shirt and someone has to gun it out" etc. The little things that you do affect the next person. Whatever position I train, I always stress the next person in the process is your customer. Treat them like they are. Just  my .03

[blue moon]

no time to read things sorry, but I'd like to throw out some educational principles that will help your students absorb quicker and retain longer.


teach and show ONLY the correct way. Emphasize the fact that if it is different it is incorrect. for example, show what a properly loaded shirt looks like. How to evaluate it if necessary and that's it. If you show them the incorrectly loaded shirt, that will stay in their memory which is to be avoided at all cost. If you teach only the proper way it is the only thing you talked about and will be the only mental image they are comparing it to. Adding anything else can make things confusing when under pressure.

build muscle memory from the first step. I can not stress this enough!

show everything as Whole-part-whole. This way they see what the whole process is like. Then break it down to individual pieces, explain them AND demonstrate them. Folow up with whole together. Then have them do the same thing starting with first part and go through all of them in proper sequence. Only after that do you have them do the whole thing correctly. They should NEVER do anything the wrong way (builds wrong muscle memory). This applies to EVERY step of training. You should be grabbing a checklist before ever touching the press so they see you do it. If you omit any part of what they should be doing, you will have to retrain (or they will have to do it which is even worse).

keep the training to 50 min at most. You should be changing the way you are teaching after 8 min or less and the topic needs to be changed at least every 20 min. They will retain most of the info shown in the beginning, so open with important parts. If there is something in the middle or your employee is drifting, use SPIKING. It is a method to draw them out of their daze and it is usually combined with new information. For example, if you are about to introduce the squeegee, you could throw it to them or smack it on the table. The sudden spike jots the brain and makes it easier to remember the information that would otherwise be buried in the middle of mindless chatter.

There is more, but in a nutshell:
build the muscle memory and make sure it is correct from the get go. Avoid any but correct information (think of it this way, if you have to use NO or DON'T it probably should be avoided).
Attack in small pieces and join together.

pierre