How does the gravure process work?

How does the gravure process work?

Gravure printing (also called intaglio, pronounced with a silent g) uses an indented area of the plate from which to print. An excess of fluid is applied to the plate, and the excess is removed. This leaves the raised areas free of ink, and the ink is transferred from the depressed areas.

Is gravure printing expensive?

Gravure image carriers are typically much more expensive than flexo image carriers, making the number of prints required to break even much higher. Gravure, however, has a longer press run time, as the cylinders do not require as frequent changing as those in the flexo printing process.

What is a rotogravure process?

Rotogravure (or gravure for short) is a type of intaglio printing process, which involves engraving the image onto an image carrier. Once a staple of newspaper photo features, the rotogravure process is still used for commercial printing of magazines, postcards, and corrugated (cardboard) and other product packaging.

Is gravure printing still used?

Gravure printing is still widely used for the commercial production of post cards, magazines, newspapers, and corrugated cardboard (and other packaging materials). Rotogravure is utilized when the job calls for fine, detailed images in a high-speed, high-quality, and long-run printing process.

What are the disadvantages of gravure printing?

Disadvantages of gravure printing

• Origination costs – The initial cylinder set up costs can be very high.
• Production Costs – Gravure printing is not always as competitive on price as other printing methods, especially for shorter print runs but is very competitive when compared to Far East suppliers.

What is the difference between offset and gravure printing?

Web offset dots are printed as a round dot; gravure ones are hexagonal. Web offset uses a printing plate; gravure a cylinder engraved with cells which carry ink. Web offset is an offset printing process, whereas gravure is intaglio (i.e. the cylinder comes into direct contact with the paper and is not offset).

What is the difference between digital printing and gravure printing?

Digital printing does not use printing plates like Rotogravure printing, but instead, it uses a toner like used in laser printers or other large printers that uses liquid ink for printing. The other added benefit of digital printing over Rotogravure printing is that it uses variable data.

What is gravure well?

A printing method which utilizes engraved cylinders or, infrequently, cylinder-mounted plates as the image carriers. The image areas are etched into the surface of the cylinder as a collection of tiny cells. Gravure is also well-suited to the printing of packaging on a variety of non-paper substrates. …

Who invented the gravure process?

Karel Klíč
Karel Klíč invented the rotogravure process in the early 1890s. The first rotogravure press was set up at the Storey Company in England. Initially Klíč kept his new printing process a secret, even as his Rembrandt Intaglio Printing Company of London popularized the production of gravure prints.

Who invented gravure?

Gravure itself was discovered in 1890 by a Czech named Karel Klíč. He derived from another of his inventions, the so-called heliogravure. Heliogravure is also based on copper engraving. However, in this case, the manual engraving is replaced by a photochemical process.

What products use gravure printing?

The typical products for which gravure printing are used include:

• Food Packaging.
• Magazines.
• Wall Paper.
• Wrapping Paper.
• Greeting Cards.
• Furniture Laminates.
• Paneling.

What is an analogue printer?

Definition of ANALOGUE PRINTING: Analogue printing creates copies of the original image, which is created on an image carrier such as a plate; the copies are made from a fully formed representation of the original image, which can be described by its physical dimensions (such as its height and width).