How to Reduce the Cost of Gravure Printing?
Date: Mar 27 2025 From: Star Color Views:
Currently, with high global inflation and weak demand, the printing industry is facing multiple challenges such as fluctuating raw material prices, rising environmental protection costs, and intensified market competition.
According to the "2024 Global Printing Industry Trend Report", the profit margin of gravure printing enterprises has dropped from 8.2% in 2019 to 5.1% in 2023. Cost control has become a core proposition for the survival and development of enterprises. How to achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement through technological innovation and process optimization will be the topic discussed in the following part of this article.
Decomposition of the Cost Structure of Gravure Printing
According to the "2023 China Printing Industry White Paper", the cost composition of gravure printing is as follows:
- Material cost: 45% (film/ink/solvent)
- Plate cylinder cost: 25% (plate making/chromium plating/maintenance)
- Energy consumption: 15% (electricity/gas)
- Labor and losses: 10%
- Others: 5%
Based on the above data, materials and plate cylinders together account for 70% of the total cost, which is the core breakthrough point for cost reduction. Below, the author will talk about how to make improvements in terms of materials and plate cylinders based on years of experience in the printing industry.
Five Core Cost Reduction Strategies and Implementation Plans
1. Ink Cost Control
Pain points: Ink accounts for 60% of the material cost, and solvent evaporation leads to waste.
Solutions:
- High solid content ink: Use ink with a solid content greater than 65% (the common type is only 45%), and the usage amount is reduced by 20%.
- Solvent recovery system: Install a condensation recovery device, and the solvent recycling rate is greater than 85%.
- Intelligent viscosity control: Deploy an online viscometer to automatically add solvents, reducing waste by 10%-15%.
2. Extension of Plate Cylinder Life and Optimization of Plate Making
Plating layer strengthening:
| Plating Layer Type |
Average Life (10,000 meters) |
Cost Comparison |
| Ordinary chromium |
50-80 |
Baseline |
| Ceramic plating layer |
150-200 |
+30% |
| Nano-alloy (experimental) |
Over 300 |
+50% |
Plate making design:
- Reduce overprinting colors: Reduce from 8 colors to 6 colors, saving 15% of the plate making cost.
- Universal plate design: The same plate cylinder can be adapted to multiple products (for example, different-sized labels share the same border), increasing the utilization rate of the plate cylinder by 40%.
3. Reduction of Material Losses
| Parameter |
Detail |
Effect on Waste |
| Automatic registration system |
Accuracy is ±0.1mm |
Waste is reduced by 70% |
| Pre-registration technology |
Install an intelligent chuck on the plate cylinder in advance |
Startup waste is reduced from 50 meters to 15 meters |
4. Energy Consumption Optimization
- Heat pump drying: It saves 40% energy compared with electric heating, and the return air utilization rate is greater than 90%.
- UV-LED curing:
| Drying Method |
Energy Consumption (kW·h/㎡) |
Speed (m/min) |
| Traditional Hot Air |
1.2 |
150 |
| UV-LED |
0.3 |
250 |
- Waste heat recovery: The flue heat exchanger preheats the fresh air, saving 15%-20% of energy.
5. Process Optimization
- Special color replacement for multi-color overprinting: Change the 6-color design to 4 special colors + 2 primary colors, reducing the ink cost by 25%.
- Simplify the pattern: Reduce the full-page printing area (from 80% to 60%), and adjust the engraving depth of the plate cylinder from 50μm to 35μm, saving 30% of the plate making cost.
- Standardized operation: Establish an ISO 12647 color management process, reducing the rework rate from 5% to 1.2%.
Forecast of Transformation Benefits
Through the comprehensive implementation of the above solutions, enterprises are expected to achieve an annual comprehensive cost reduction of approximately 18%-25%.
Disclaimer: The above transformation solutions are summarized based on personal experience and do not serve as investment advice.
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