If you are in the printing industry and doing rotogravure printing, then you do understand the importance of incorporating laser engraving. There are many benefits that come with adding laser engraving technology in your printing. Most of the biggest benefit that you get is the fast and efficient creation of the printing plates.
However, you need to get everything when laser engraving rotogravure cylinders to get quality results. That’s where most people get it wrong. In this post, we are providing you tips on how you can get the most of your laser engraving. Check the following.
Get The Right Etching Depth
Once you get the image or the text that you engrave right and on the computer, the second thing that you need to prepare is the rotogravure cylinder. This is the printing cylinder where the printing plates are places. One thing that you need to consider is the depth of the cylinder layer. Whether you are using stainless steel, ceramic, or copper cylinder, you need to ensure that the surface of the rotor is protected from ferric chloride. This is the chemical that’s widely used for the etching and could be damaging to the cylinders.
Get The Correct Laser Engraving Setting
The other tip that we want to give to give is a laser engraving machine setting. You will notice that these machines offers a vast range of setting that enables them to handle a vast range of engraving tasks. The setting determines the number of things, including the size of the cell and the depth. You also need to protect the rotogravure cylinder you are engraving. So, get the setting correct before starting with engraving.
Right Plate Materials
There are various ways that you can form printing plates using gravure printing. First, you can do direct engraving where the copper cylinder is coated with a zinc layer for engraving. In such cases, you just need to ensure that the zinc layer is enough to protect the cylinder from laser beam damages. If you are not engraving directly, then you need to get the best quality materials. Rubber or photopolymer are some of the widely used materials for laser engraving rotogravure cylinders.
Engraving Techniques
The other thing that you need is the engraving technique. Make sure that you understand how the laser engraving machine should be used. Get training before you can start using these machines. Otherwise, you might get your printings damaged or get injured.
