An old school tech in modern day print market, showing the full strength of its efficiency, consistency and reliability.
In this era of digitalization, digital branding and marketing, there remains a strong old competitor giving a tough neck competition to the digital printing and technology that is Gravure printingalso known as Rotogravure, used in thousands of industries such as print media, product packaging, brand printing, etc.
Well the first thing that should come to your mind is that, how the hell should I pronounce it? How do I pronounce gravure? Well we have got the exact answer for that too,but before that let’s dig a little into the history, how this word came into existence.Gravure is a French word which literally means engraving. Now let’s pronounce it. There are two ways of pronouncing gravure, the first one – gruh-vyoo-uh and the second one is – grey-vyer. Now try it yourself and if you are not able to pronounce it, get in touch with our team, they’ll help you for that too.
Both (gruh-vyoo-uh &grey-vyer)the pronunciations of gravure are equally correct considering the regions and dialect of the person.
Now comes the history part. It was Mid-19th century, when other printing solutions like Linotype Printing, Franklin Press, Photo zincography, etc.At that time, W H Fox Talbot first processed a half-tone printing plate in textile industry to perform PhotoGravuring. From then till the end of 19th century, numerous scientists, industrialist and technicians brought innovation and development in the process of gravuring and finally brought into picture the modern day rotogravure or gravure.
In layman terms, gravure in a process of engraving or printing any image, design or element, on anymajor substance, material or packaging. Gravure involves a mechanical process which is said to be similar to an offset printing process,However there are some basic differences which we will discuss in our upcoming blog. To understand it clearly, see the diagram given below.
A Gravure printingis depended onmultiple aspects although there aremajorlyfour elements or components;
- The first one is the gravure cylinder or an engraved cylinder. The size of the cylinder remains in mm but its diameter differs from manufacturer to manufacturer and its consumption, requirement and need. The gravure cylinder is generally made up of M.S. Hollow Pipe,Copper and Chrome Plating. The application of the cylinder will always differ while printing based on the requirement of the printer and the product or material on which the gravure printing needs to be done.
- The second one is Gravure Ink. A unique fluid ink with very low thickness, which allows it to be used on the engraved areas of the cylinder and then moved on the printing substance or material.
- The third and master feature of Rotogravure is Gravure Printing Blade or Gravure Doctor Blade. The printing blade acts as a quality controller for the Gravure Printing. It removes or extracts the extra ink from the non-engraved areas of the cylinder, letting the perfect quantity or amount of ink required for printing.
- The next one is an impression roller which simply puts the right amount of pressure, force and weight on the Gravure Cylinder and the substance to provide the best quality of print. The impression rollers, today come with lot of innovative technological substances such as Silicone or Neoprene rubber to smoothen the rolling process.
So now you know what Gravure Printing is and how it works in actuality. Still have queries? Don’t worry, our team has got your back!
But do you know why this old school printing tech is still so effective and always in demand as an all-time printing solution since last two and a half centuries? We’ll tell you.
