METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING GRAVURE CELLS IN A GRAVURE CYLINDER

摘要

A method and associated apparatus for forming gravure cells in a gravure cylinder for accurately reproducing an image, including the steps of coating the peripheral surface of a gravure cylinder with an insulating coating, revealing a first group of predetermined portions of the coated gravure cylinder by selectively removing the insulating coating overlying portions of the peripheral surface of the gravure cylinder, ablating the first group of exposed portions of the gravure cylinder to a predetermined depth, and repeating the revealing and ablating steps until a predetermined number of different groups of predetermined portions of the gravure cylinder have been revealed with each previously revealed group having further portions of the gravure cylinder ablated to a greater predetermined depth during each ablating step to provide a gravure cylinder having the desired pattern of gravure cells of the desired depths for accurately reproducing an image.