Tirada offset

A 90-minute, 4-round basic Express simulation for Spanish vocational training (Formacion Profesional), Artes Graficas family: module 0878 Desarrollo de la tirada offset (Tecnico en Impresion Grafica, grado medio, Real Decreto 1590/2011).

The learner is a newly qualified press operator who runs a job on her own for the first time at a fictional commercial printer in a fictional town of La Rioja: 24,000 good sheets of a catalogue cover with a client's brand red, on a five-unit sheet-fed offset press, with a lorry at one o'clock.

Eight decisions over four moments of the run: how the colour is brought to the OK sheet and watched, where the dampening is set at start-up, what is done when the red goes pale, what is done about marks on the sheet, what is done about set-off in the pile, what is done when the register opens, how fast the last stretch is printed and what is done with the pallets.

Scored on waste, machine hours, colour difference of the red and risk of a claim; two tempting choices hide their cost until a stretch later, and two critical errors (a blanket wiped with the press running and a guard interlock overridden, a colour report signed with readings that are not those of the run) cap the round. Lesson: correcting the water-ink balance early saves sheets. Training level only.

Spanish primary, English parity. All companies, towns and people are fictional.

An introductory simulation that assumes no prior knowledge of the subject, designed for undergraduate courses. It also works in vocational and high-school programmes and in onboarding sessions.