Shanghai Asia Holdings

Our Printing Process

"Our Strategic Focus on Gravure Priniting"

Continuously upgrading existing machinery to improve production efficiency and increase capacity

Gravure printing is a capital intensive printing process capable of producing high quality images in terms of colour density, consistency and sharpness similar to a photograph. Accordingly, gravure printing is the preferred printing method for products (such as imitation wood grain finishes) that require sharp image with consistent colour tone.

Compared with printing methods such as off-set printing, images produced by gravure printing have higher colour densities and sharpness. For instance, primary colours, such as red and green are more pronounced and the gradation from highlight to shadow is better defined. In addition, metallic colours such as gold and silver are produced with higher fidelity. This makes gravure printing preferred for products, such as those found in cigarette packaging that usually require bright metallic and contrasting colours.

"One of the few companies in the PRC to use a 9-colour rotogravure printer which allows printing in a wider range of colours"

The gravure printing process is a mechanically simple and direct printing process as illustrated below. The ink is contained in the small cells that are precisely etched on the surface of the printing cylinder (also known as the image carrier). This printing cylinder rotates in the ink pan (which contains the ink) to allow the ink to be transferred directly to the printing cylinder. Each engraved cell holds the ink in place as the printing cylinder turns past the doctor blade which removes the excess ink from the surface of the printing cylinder. After removing the excess ink, the printing cylinder then comes into contact with the paper and the ink in the cells is then transferred to the paper.

Due to the high cost and durability of the printing cylinders, gravure printing is often used for very long print runs of up to a million times or more. For print runs exceeding a million, the printing cylinders can be plated with a layer of chromium to provide extra durability. When the chromium layer begins to wear, it is removed from the cylinder and a new coating of chromium layer is applied.

Since gravure printing is a direct printing method, it is a more efficient printing process than off-set printing because gravure printing does not require a fountain solution to keep the non-image areas clean. By eliminating this cleaning process, gravure printing allows for better print quality control and faster print runs. Some print runs can be as fast as 1,000 feet per minute. The microscopic depressions etched on the printing cylinder create very dense impressions that produce images with high colour density, consistency and sharpness, thus making it the preferred method of printing for high quality image reproduction.