Rotogravure Printing is one of the technologies in the printing world. Rotogravure itself in the graphic world means deep printing or printing technology that is commonly used to print media made of flexible materials (for example; various types of plastic, BOPP, CPP, Nylon, LLDPE, PET, PP, aluminum and paper and PVC).

The material to be printed is in the form of rolls. The results of the rotogravure prints cannot be directly enjoyed by consumers, but must go through several stages,
one example is the manufacture of children’s snack packaging (lamination/converting process):

1. The printed plastic is laminated first by placing the printed roller into the lamination machine, then the plastic roller is coated with adhesive material and attached to another medium in the form of “metalize” (a mixture of plastic materials coated with aluminum).
2. Rolls that have been laminated are then dried (in “aging”) first.
3. The dried rolls are then taken to a “slitter” machine, to cut the rolls of length and width into certain sizes according to orders from the snack manufacturer.

In the printing process, print media (usually called film), printing ink and printing cylinders play an important role. The printing cylinder is usually made of iron pipe with a thickness of 6 to 9mm whose diameter is adjusted to the design drawing.

The number of printing cylinders used during the printing process depends on the number of colors in the desired image. So for example we are going to print an image of a car consisting of 5 colors, then the print cylinder must also be made of 5 pieces.

The process of making a printing cylinder is quite complicated, first the iron pipe must be machined first to reach the desired size, then coated with copper.

After the copper plating process, the desired image is created using a special machine (known as an engraving machine).

Images are made by inserting a special needle (stylus) in such a way that the depth determines the print result.

After the image is formed, the iron pipe will be coated with chrome so that it is not easily oxidized and is more resistant to wear and tear.

The process above is only a brief description, behind it there are still a lot of technologies used in the world of rotogravure to produce a package.

Starting from the design, manufacture of cylindrical tubes of iron, copper plating, making images on iron cylinders that have been coated with copper, chrome plating, printing, inspection, lamination, slitting (cutting), bag making (if the order is sent in the form of a bag) and many more. the process in it.

Because in the process of changing the shape of the basic material into finished materials, this process is usually called the “converting” process or in other words “converting industry”.

Some everyday examples of converting results are as follows:

1. Instant Noodle Packaging
2. Packaging of medicines (other than capsules and syrup and eye drops)
3. Snack Packaging
4. Packaging labels for bottles of mineral water and isotonic water (called shrink labels)
5. Cover the glass of mineral water, etc. (lid cup)
6. Packaging Rice 1, 2, and 5kg
7. Cooking Oil Packaging/ Standing Pouch
8. Packaging Frozen/Vacuum Food
9. And the like

Rotogravure can also be used to produce magazines, folding boxes, gift wraps and beverage labels which with special equipment can be done in line.

The advantage of rotogravure compared to other printing processes is that it can be used to print in rolls with widths ranging from 20 cm (labeling) to 1100 cm (floor vinyl) with a length of more than 5000 mtr depending on the material used.

Likewise, the types of materials used vary widely, ranging from 12mc plastic film to 320 gsm cardboard. While the weakness of rotogravure is, the image quality is not as sharp as the offset and the text is formed from the arrangement of dots.

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