Gravure Printing
A printing technique from a plate, where printing elements are incised into the surface and consist of very small cells separated by thin dividers (raster cells) regardless of the type of the image (a text or an illustration). These dividers and other spacing elements rise and lie on the same level. The printing plate is made on the cylinder. During the printing process, first of all a low-viscosity ink is applied in plenty over the whole surface of the rotating plate. Then a special knife (scraper), sliding along the plate surface, removes totally the ink from the spacing elements and its excess from the printing elements. The ink is transferred under contact pressure from the printing elements to the substrate.
The characteristic features of the prints:
- Absence of outlined contours or lines (fig. 1)
Fig. 1. Fragment printed by gravure printing.
100 Mexican Pesos F series (2007)
- Raster lines of spacing elements may be seen in the places of light halftones (fig. 2, a)
- Absence of bulges or coloured relief
- Notched edges of the image (fig. 2, b)
a
b
Fig. 2. Zoomed fragment printed by gravure printing.
100 Mexican Pesos F series (2007):
a – raster lines of spacing elements; b – notched edge of the image
Gravure printing is used in the manufacturing process of the banknotes on the polymer substrate.