Charlotte, NC, September 30, 2010 – At the recent PLGA Global Tech Conference on “The Gravure Advantage,” Tony Donato offered a detailed briefing on the benefits and uses of laser engraved ceramic cylinders. As Product Development Engineer at global anilox supplier Harper Corporation of America, he’s more than a little familiar with the subject. 

Donato made extensive use of photos, illustrations, histograms and charts in his presentation on engraved ceramic cylinders in gravure applications. A Harper tabletop display during the Charlotte PLGA conference featured an imaged and fully engraved ceramic cylinder. The highlight was the patent pending Phantom QD™ family of precision ink proofing system showing both, a direct gravure ink proofer and a rubber transfer roller proofer plus a sampling of HarperScientific products.  The QD™ ink proofing system has constant loading pressure over its full stroke.

Donato recapped the general characteristics of ceramic cylinders. These include superior wear resistance enabling the use of tool steel and ceramic tipped doctor blades; the importance of post engraving polishing for substrates and doctor blade wear; that ceramic can be applied over SST and or with corrosion resistant bonds; that ceramic cylinders have specific applications in flood coating of inks, coatings and adhesives and direct product gravure one and two color imaged applications.

The Harper product specialist pointed out that while ceramic cylinders are more expensive than conventional ones, they deliver dramatically extended service life and can be reverse metered with enclosed chambers. Also, the cylinders can be engraved with cells or using TIF file images or patterns. Another key: they accommodate a virtually limitless combination of Lpi and volumes (BCM).

For further information, please contact Jazmin Kluttz at 704-588-3371 or [email protected]