This article will provide a simple training course to explain the gravure printing process.
Gravure printing is mostly used for printing magazines, packaging and wallpapers.
The specific qualities of gravure printing are high colour saturation, useful for not absorbing substrate, low ink film thickness, high production speed and adapted to produce fine screen work.
In the other hand, gravure is quite expensive regarding engraving of the cylinder, start-up time are longer than flexo and you need a huge storage area for your cylinders.
Gravure printing is an intaglio printing process.
The ink is applied to the engraved cylinder by spraying or immersion.
The excess of the ink is wiped-out by a doctor blade, so the exact amount of the ink remains in the anilox cells.
There are three fundamental parts in a gravure press.
* The engraved cylinder
* The pressure cylinder
* The doctor blade
Gravure press schematic
We will look at those three parts, one by one and determine the best way to achieve the best print quality.