where have all the keypunch operators gone, long time passing

[ctrclckws]

In the past I worked for a company that created card decks for Jacquard Looms.
These controlled when the warp threads and the waft threads (left - right and perpendicular) were lifted and lowered so that patterns are woven into the final product cloth.

This was at least into the mid 1990's.

The designers worked on computers and had programs to convert the artwork into stacks of cards that were strung together in the correct order.

The cards themselves were much larger and thicker than the computer punch cards. They had to survive being used repeatedly.