The “unsung heroes” of our industry are the technicians who help design and maintain the complex machinery that is essential to making profits. Technicians who graduate from a community college with knowledge of industrial machinery are the technical experts we depend on.

Many community colleges have training programs in “Industrial Machine Technology,” much which applies to label and narrow web printing equipment. Associate’s degree programs include in-depth coverage of electronic circuits, mechanics, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and control software. Some programs also include hydraulics and pneumatics. These programs include hands-on sessions with lab equipment where the students learn the operation, troubleshooting, and programming of control systems. The lab equipment is specially designed for training new technicians. Instructors can install a “bug ” to cause a malfunction for the students to troubleshoot.

Label printing companies should give their machine technicians full recognition.

Today’s industrial printing machinery has advanced electronics, complex mechanics, and computer software  — thus the need for highly expert technicians to troubleshoot and maintain this complex equipment.

Some technicians may be employed “in house” by the label companies, while others are “field” technicians who travel to repair the machines at companies that cannot afford full-time repair personnel.

Some label converting machinery has electronic eyes for color registration that sees a color mark to have proper placement of multiple printed colors. PLCs have control software to control the sequence of the steps in the label printing process. Advanced microprocessor circuits have made label printing and placement machines more accurate and faster today.

Our industry should have partnerships with the local community colleges – for recruiting the next generation of technicians. Machine technicians are the people who really drive our industry!


About the author: Now retired, Glen Spielbauer was a factory automation technician who worked at a semiconductor company. He then owned a business whose primay pupose was upgrading labeling and packaging machines in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.