Printing cylinder engraver calibration system and method

摘要

A system for calibrating engraving heads used for engraving gravure printing cylinders determines a cell volume for cells formed in a test cut in a printing cylinder. The system of the present invention includes a procedure of cutting two or more test cuts in each printing cylinder. One of the test cuts is at the light end of the cylinder and the second is at the dark end. The morphological characteristics of each individual cell in each of the test cuts is measured, and the average cell dimensions and volume per unit area are computed. These average values are compared with desired average values, and each engraving head is adjusted in accordance with this comparison to cut the desired values within an acceptable tolerance band. The desired average values can be adjusted to take into account new inks, papers, batch variations in inks and papers, and diamond wear in the engraving head.