Holding onto stocks of used gravure printing cylinders, bases and rollers is the normal by-product of the gravure printing process and the busier a printer/engraver is the more cylinders they are often holding onto, which in turn results in increased costs in storing those cylinders that may or may not ever be used again.
Redundant Cylinders now an Opportunity
With the Hybrid Cylinder technology, redundant, soon to be redundant cylinders, or indeed cylinders that may be a year or more away from being retired can be re-purposed, and re-integrated back into the pre-press supply chain (with a size variable build-up layer) thus replacing the need for new cylinders by ratios of between 2:1 and 10:1, with the obvious associated cost savings this brings in new cylinder spend per annum.
With the typical gravure printer/engraver having a few to several thousand cylinders, bases or rollers in storage, and with some of the larger print groups were it is not uncommon for tens of thousands of redundant steel gravure cylinders to be in their stores it is not difficult to see that if the inefficiencies in the current gravure pre-press processes are reversed, by using the Hybrid Cylinder system, that this can lead to substantial cost savings and also the opportunity for time to press to be dramatically cut with same day print ready cylinders now a real possibility.
‘Repurpose’ instead of ‘Write Off’
Given that the traditional gravure cylinder has a very defined usefulness, becoming somewhat obsolete once the print job for which it was sourced becomes retired, the Hybrid Cylinder process can breathe new life into used cylinders, offering the printer/engraver the unique possibility to obtain several different sized cylinders with our size variable material manufactured onto the obsolete cylinder.
Instead of scrapping old cylinders that have fulfilled their usefulness, a Hybrid (redundant) Cylinder can now give the printer/engraver anywhere from a ratio of 2:1 to 10:1 of new cylinder sizes from its innovative size variable layer. Given that a redundant cylinder with scrap only value can now replace the need for new gravure cylinders by 2:1 to 10:1, it is easy to see how costs savings of 50% to 90% can be achieved in adopting the Hybrid Cylinder technology.
When to Repurpose
The uniqueness of the Hybrid Cylinder system not only means that redundant cylinders with scrap metal value can now be repurposed to save both time and money in pre-press, the Hybrid process can be applied to any base cylinder, not just obsolete ones as crucially the base cylinder be it days or years away from being obsolete is undamaged throughout the entire Hybrid manufacturing process meaning that the once limited period of a cylinder’s usefulness is now limitlessly extended and expanded.
The Hybrid Cylinder manufacturing facility is now online we are currently focusing on expanding the product range ahead of launch at the end of 2015.
To learn more about Hybrid Cylinders, and for pricing or to order, please use the form below.