Gravure engraving is one of our core businesses. We offer objective, independent advice and solutions for gravure printers in packaging printing, decorative printing and security printing.
The engraving of packaging gravure printing cylinders has undergone dramatic changes in the last 15 years. Film originals have become obsolete, and engraving from data has become standard practice. The latest engravers take full advantage of this trend, and have become pure “recorders”. At the same time, a large proportion of the functionality of the engraver has been passed to front-end devices.
A range of new developments has allowed the productivity of our engraving machines and the quality of the gravure cylinders to be increased exponentially.
Engraving quality depends on a range of factors. The first is the quality of the input data, which is now digital data. The second is the calibration of the engraver, which involves a Test cutting. Next come the physical properties of the engraving head, which transfers the information to the cylinder. And a constant factor is the quality of the copper, which determines the quality of the cylinder. However, the engraving cylinder is only a means to an end, and when all is said and done, the really important thing is the finished printed product.
We can help in the determination of values for test cutting and gradations to produce engraving cylinders for different printing conditions and the introduction of procedures and check mechanisms for (instrument-based) quality control. We guarantee our cylinders will perform to the most exacting standards.