How to become Print Binding and Finishing Worker in 2024

Print Binding and Finishing Worker Bind books and other publications or finish printed products by hand or machine. May set up binding and finishing machines.

Print Binding and Finishing Worker is Also Know as

In different settings, Print Binding and Finishing Worker is titled as

  • Binder Operator
  • Bindery Operator
  • Bindery Technician
  • Bindery Worker
  • Book Binder
  • Custom Bookbinder
  • Perfect Binder Operator

Education and Training of Print Binding and Finishing Worker

Print Binding and Finishing Worker is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Print Binding and Finishing Worker

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.

Education Required for Print Binding and Finishing Worker

These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

Degrees Related to Print Binding and Finishing Worker

Training Required for Print Binding and Finishing Worker

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Print Binding and Finishing Worker in different industries are

What Do Print Binding and Finishing Worker do?

  • Apply color to edges of signatures using brushes, pads, or atomizers.
  • Bind new books, using hand tools such as bone folders, knives, hammers, or brass binding tools.
  • Compress sewed or glued signatures, using hand presses or smashing machines.
  • Cut binder boards to specified dimensions, using board shears, hand cutters, or cutting machines.
  • Cut cover material to specified dimensions, fitting and gluing material to binder boards by hand or machine.
  • Design original or special bindings for limited editions or other custom binding projects.
  • Form book bodies by folding and sewing printed sheets to form signatures and assembling signatures in numerical order.
  • Imprint or emboss lettering, designs, or numbers on book covers, using gold, silver, or colored foil, and stamping machines.
  • Insert book bodies in devices that form back edges of books into convex shapes and produce grooves that facilitate cover attachment.
  • Maintain records, such as daily production records, using specified forms.
  • Meet with clients, printers, or designers to discuss job requirements or binding plans.
  • Monitor machine operations to detect malfunctions or to determine whether adjustments are needed.
  • Perform highly skilled hand finishing binding operations, such as grooving or lettering.
  • Punch holes in and fasten paper sheets, signatures, or other material, using hand or machine punches and staplers.
  • Read work orders to determine instructions and specifications for machine set-up.
  • Repair, restore, or rebind old, rare, or damaged books, using hand tools.
  • Set up or operate bindery machines, such as coil binders, thermal or tape binders, plastic comb binders, or specialty binders.
  • Set up or operate glue machines by filling glue reservoirs, turning switches to activate heating elements, or adjusting glue flow or conveyor speed.
  • Set up or operate machines that perform binding operations, such as pressing, folding, or trimming.
  • Stitch or glue endpapers, bindings, backings, or signatures, using sewing machines, glue machines, or glue and brushes.
  • Trim edges of books to size, using cutting machines, book trimming machines, or hand cutters.
  • Examine stitched, collated, bound, or unbound product samples for defects, such as imperfect bindings, ink spots, torn pages, loose pages, or loose or uncut threads.
  • Install or adjust bindery machine devices, such as knives, guides, rollers, rounding forms, creasing rams, or clamps, to accommodate sheets, signatures, or books of specified sizes.
  • Lubricate, clean, or make minor repairs to machine parts to keep machines in working condition.
  • Prepare finished books for shipping by wrapping or packing books and stacking boxes on pallets.
  • Train workers to set up, operate, and use automatic bindery machines.

Qualities of Good Print Binding and Finishing Worker

  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.

Tools Used by Print Binding and Finishing Worker

  • Band nippers
  • Bindery stackers
  • Board shears
  • Book binding rulers
  • Book stitching equipment
  • Bookbinding awls
  • Bookbinding glue brushes
  • Bookbinding jigs
  • Bookbinding machine conveyors
  • Bookbinding utility knives
  • Buckle folders
  • Case makers
  • Coil binding machines
  • Coil crimping pliers
  • Corner rounders
  • Cover feeders
  • Die cutting equipment
  • Digital duplicating machines
  • Forklifts
  • Glue rollers
  • Guillotine paper cutters
  • Hand dollies
  • Hand trucks
  • Hot foil stamping machines
  • Hydraulic trimmers
  • Knife folders
  • Laminating machines
  • Long nose pliers
  • Padding presses
  • Pallet jacks
  • Paper drills
  • Paper jogging machines
  • Paper knives
  • Paper punching machines
  • Perfect binding machines
  • Perforators
  • Personal computers
  • Plastic comb binding machines
  • Printing collators
  • Punching cradles
  • Push drills
  • Rotary punches
  • Rounding and backing machines
  • Saddle stitchers
  • Scoring machines
  • Shrink wrap machines
  • Signature feeders
  • Smashing machines
  • Spine tapers
  • Spiral coil inserters
  • Strapping machines
  • Tape binding machines
  • Thermal book binding equipment

Technology Skills required for Print Binding and Finishing Worker

  • Email software
  • Houchen Bindery Library Automated Retrieval System LARS
  • Label printing software
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft Publisher
  • Microsoft Word
  • Trade Bindery Software Bindery Estimating System
  • Trade Bindery Software Bindery Management System
  • Web browser software