The 402 could read punched cards at a speed of 80 to 150 cards per minute, depending on process options, while printing data at a speed of up to 100 lines per minute.

The built-in line printer used 43 alpha-numerical type bars (left-side) and 45 numerical type bars (right-side, shorter bars) to print a total of 88 positions across a line of a report.

[1] The IBM 403 added the ability to print up to three lines, such as a multiline shipping address, from a single punchcard, instead of just one line per card with the 402.

Additional controls included a carriage control tape and mechanical levers called hammersplits and hammerlocks, that controlled some printing functions.

In July 2010, a group from the Computer History Museum reported that an IBM 402 was still in operation at Sparkler Filters, Inc., a manufacturing company that produces chemical filtration systems, in Conroe, Texas, still as of 2022[citation needed] the company's accounting and payroll is done on the oldest American computer in service within the United States of America or elsewhere on the Earth.