High Speed Rotogravure Printing Machine

The rotogravure printing process does not use printing plates but instead, the graphics are engraved directly into a metal cylinder. The metal cylinders transfer the print directly on to the printed objects. The graphics are etched onto the surface using acids.Gravure printing is a widely used roll-to-roll technique that enables the rapid fabrication of high-resolution printed products, reaching speeds of 20–1000 m/min (Ihalainen et al., 2015). Briefly, the pattern to be printed is engraved as a discrete cavity into a rotary printing cylinder.In rotogravure printing the image is acid-etched on the surface of a metal cylinder—one cylinder for each color—in a pattern of cells. The cells are recessed into the cylinder, unlike relief printing or letterpress where the printing image is raised, or like offset printing, in which the image is level with the plate.