Pieter (58) has been involved with Printforce since the very beginning. In fact, he was already working in the printing industry before the company existed. “I sort of fell into it,” he says. “After my military service, I started working at a small print shop nearby. That is when the bug bit me. The craft, the technology, the smell of paper – I was fascinated right away.” What started with basic black-and-white prints developed into a career among high-tech inkjets and paper rolls weighing up to a thousand kilos. Pieter has seen the whole evolution of the profession: from manual work to fully automated production. “The switch to inkjet was a real leap forward,” he recalls. “Speed, colour, quality – everything got better. And we moved with it.”
As a print operator, he starts his workday by cleaning and calibrating. “I always begin by cleaning the heads, making everything neat. Then I set up the printer using Prisma, our system where the jobs come in. Load the paper, choose the right setup, check the distance between the spray heads. It comes down to hundredths of millimetres.” That precision is no luxury. “You may not notice it with the naked eye, but you will see it in the end result. If it is even slightly off, you get shadows, smudges, misalignment. You want to catch that before it happens.”
Once the printer is running, Pieter keeps a close eye on everything. “You have to stay alert. The machine prints at high speed, so a small mistake has an immediate big impact. And sometimes a rush job comes in – then you have to switch quickly. No day is the same. That is exactly what makes it fun.”
Contrary to what you might expect, he does not miss the old craft. “I am glad I no longer have to crawl under a counterpressure cylinder or work with developer baths full of ammonia,” he laughs at the memory. “That used to be normal. Now the work is cleaner, lighter and much smarter.”
New machines, automation, sustainability – Pieter is comfortable with all of it. “It really is about speed, flexibility and zero waste here. Everything is precisely aligned with what the customer needs.”
Every day he cycles twenty kilometres from Opijnen to work. “Rain or shine, I get on my bike. Once I arrive, I know exactly what I have to do. I handle one part of the process, and I do that part as well as I can. So that the person after me can easily take over. That way, you are efficient together, and you save time.”
What has kept him at Printforce all these years? “The atmosphere is just good. It is a flat organisation – you can walk up to anyone. A very diverse team too, and it is always enjoyable. And the irregular shifts, I actually like that.”
Pieter is short and to the point: “I am still happy here. Just let me print.”
