Stamp printing by gravure - Gravure

Stamp printing by gravure

Engraving/Gravure printing is where the ink is held in a recess etched or cut into the surface of a printing plate. The engraver cutting by hand the image which holds the ink. LINE ENGRAVING. Today the gravure process is mostly reserved for security/banknote and long run printing jobs (colour catalogues). The modern cylinders needed for this process are expensive to manufacture compared with lithographic plates.
In the gravure printing process, the printing plate has recesses/cells on it's surface, this fills with ink as it passes through the ink trough, a DOCTOR BLADE then scraps the excess ink off the surface, leaving the ink in the recesses/cells, which is then transferred to the paper.

Every colour will have its own printing unit like this one, the web/paper passing from one unit to the other. This has to be done in perfect registration, so each colour prints in the right place on the paper.

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Frank@stamphelp.com