Role of Rotogravure Printing in Packaging Industry

It is not a name that might be known to a lay man but it is a printing technique that is used for printing in high volumes. Even the wallpapers that are used to cover the walls, magazine printing, grift wrap printing and the like are also done through rotogravure printing only.

Large cylinders are engraved with the particular design with the help of stylus. Engravings are referred as cells that provide the depth to the engraving, the deeper are the cells, the better are the colours on the printing.

A different cylinder is used for each colour used in the designing. If a design has four colours in it then four cylinders will be used for the engraving of that particular packaging.

Pros offered by Rotogravure printing

• It is the only method that can support bulk printing in the continuous tone images
•  It provides a consistent print quality and direct results in the process
•  Stuff gets printed very quickly, 14m film per second can be quickly printed over it
• Also, the inks used in rotogravure printing dries very quickly
• The whole process is automated, that is the reason the labor costs are also low
• These cylinders are durable and can be used several times while printing.

All these cylinders are plated in chrome and they also have a protective surface for all the cells that are formed for it. They control the ink that is transferred on the substrate. It is very important to do it, otherwise the ink might just flow over the engraving and then you won’t get the desired results. Here are the basic steps that are involved in the process of engraving the cylinders.

• Removing all the rotogravure cylinders that are used from the press
• Then in order to remove the residual ink, one has the wash the cylinders
• Washing the gravure cylinders to remove residual ink
• The layer of chrome has to be removed from the steel cylinders
• Then remove the copper layer by means of electroplating or the mechanical process
• Then you can prepare for the process of copper plating to remove the ballard skin from it.
• Electroplating is done after that
• Finishing is done over the surface so that high-speed diamond head comes there with a burnishing stone.
• Polishing band
• Engraving
• Test printing 

It is very important to control the process during electromechanical engraving of all the rotogravure cylinders. Otherwise, you might have to face some problems like shoe lines, variations in cell depth, thundering, budges and machine hangouts. There are five major specifications like angle, stylus, accuracy, and variations during the process of printing. It is even critical for the printers in order to maintain the quality of perfection. Make sure that the cylinders are stored properly in the racks for the future jobs so that it can be transported from one step to the next one. This is because of the demand rotogravure cylinder manufacturing companies in India are working for the leading flexible packaging manufacturers.

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