Correct the jumbled sentences:

1. Offset, have, cylinders, presses, blanket, and, impression, plate, three, printing, as well as, systems, and, inking, dampening.
2. Dampening, on, offset, transfer, the, systems, presses, solution, to, dampening, the, plate.
3. The, blanket-to-blanket, on, the, press, paper, printed, on, is, both, at, the same, sides, it, as, passes, the, two, between, cylinders, blanket, time.

 

8. Agree or disagree with the following statements:

 

1. In sheet-fed offset printing, substrates of equal sheet sizes and grammages are processed and these can generally be obtained off-the-shelf at short notice.
2. The great variety of standard substrates for sheet-fed offset necessitates well-organized stock-keeping in the paper industry.
3. In-line or off-line finishing operations, such as coating, imprinting, numbering, perforating, and punching are popular technologies used in sheet-fed offset.
4. High-precision conveyor systems, guide elements, and monitoring systems are not necessary in order to route the sheet from the feed pile via the feeder, through the printing units, and finally to the delivery, where the printed sheet is stacked in a pile again.
5. The single-sheet feeder has the disadvantage that it is easier to adjust to the sheet size and the paper quality.
6. With work and tumble, exact straight printing and verso printing register can only be achieved if the distance between the front and rear edges of each individual sheet is exactly the same throughout the entire print run.
7. Work and tumble layouts must include three gripper margins, whereas with work and turn one gripper margin suffices.
8. In newspaper printingunits are arranged more often in vertical position than in the horizontal.

 

Study some examples of the phrasal verbs. Translate them into Russian.

A “phrasal verb” (sometimes called a two-part verb) is a fixed expression that consists of a verb followed by an adverb (to give out) or a preposition (to look after), or sometimes both (to put up with). Phrasal verbs have their own special meanings, and these are often quite different from the meaning of the main verb from which they are formed.

 

to throw away

to polish off/ up

to hand in

to pick on

to put down to

to join in

to grow up/out of

 

 

Write down 10 sentences of your own with phrasal verbs. Mind their meanings.

Unit FOUR

TEXT

GRAVURE PRINTING

 

Gravure printing (intaglio) is a very old printing process, whose beginnings (copperplate engraving) date back to the early fifteenth century. The distinctive feature of gravure printing technology is the fact that the image elements are engraved into the surface of the cylinder. The non-image areas are at a constant, original level. Prior to printing, the entire printing plate (non-printing and printing elements) is inked and flooded with ink. Ink is removed from the non image (by a wiper or blade) before printing, so that ink remains only in the cells. The ink is transferred from the cells to the printing substrate by a high printing pressure and the adhesive forces between printing substrate and ink.

       Today gravure printing accounts for a market share of 10–15% in industrialized nations. This percentage share has remained almost constant for two decades, with a slight downward tendency. Gravure printing is principally used for very long print runs. The minimum print run is approximately one million copies. Weekly magazines of general interest and mail order catalogs are therefore the main products produced by means of gravure printing. Another major area is in the printing of packaging, from extremely thin foils to thick cardboard.

       With gravure printing, straight printing and perfecting is done in systems where the first side of the web is printed in multicolor and then (in-line) on the opposite side. With the exception of sheet-fed gravure printing, which is now found only rarely, web-fed gravure printing requires a gapless gravure cylinder, onto which the image is applied directly, by means of etching or engraving. For this, the cylinder must be prepared in a costly mechanical and galvanic process. In its basic design, the gravure cylinder consists of a thick-walled steel tube with flanged steel journals. All of these joints are welded during the manufacture of the gravure cylinder so that a solid roller body is created which still has to be balanced so that there are no vibrations when running at high speed (typically up to 15 m/s) in the printing press.

 Etching

 For transferring the image onto the gravure cylinder, conventional etching processes use a pigment paper, which is coated with a gelatin layer and sensitized (i. e., made light sensitive) with a chrome saline solution just before use. First the crossline screen and then the imaging film are exposed onto the pigment paper in copying frame. The pigment paper is then “laminated” onto the gravure cylinder surface in a special pigment paper transfer machine. A stabilizing base paper, which is later removed, ensures that this transfer takes place in accurate register. The use of an “autofilm” where the photo emulsion is poured onto foil makes this base paper redundant. The process that follows, involving softening, base paper peeling, and washing out of the unexposed and therefore soluble gelatin in approximately 40 °C warm water (in this process the cylinder turns in a water bath) followed by a drying process, can be described as “developing.” All these operations are carried out in program-controlled automatic developing machines.

Electromechanical Engraving

The operations involved in electromechanical engraving are significantly shorter compared to the etching process. Nowadays, they are normally controlled directly with the data recorded in prepress. In this way the mounting of a scanning original on a separate scanning drum that runs synchronously with the engraving machine is also no longer needed. Hence, the engraving machine only consists of a lathe-like device, into which the prepared gravure cylinder is mounted. The gravure cylinder rotates during engraving at a constant surface speed depending on the screen at approximately 1 m/s. At the same time the diamond stylus of the engraving head moves at a high frequency(4–8 kHz). The diamond penetrates the copper at different depths and produces the cell.

Laser Engraving

In the past there have been numerous attempts to make engraving faster and cheaper. One possibility lies in the implementation of non-contact methods, such as electron or laser beam. In individual cases, laser engraving is already in practical usage today. In the year 1995, a direct engraving process using a laser was brought onto the market (“Laserstar”by Max Dätwyler AG), where a solid-state laser engraves a zinc layer. The cell shapes produced are similar to those of etched cells (the process operates at 70 kHz engraving frequency). The engraved cylinder is chrome-plated after a grinding and cleaning process. Dressing of the gravure cylinder after printing is carried out using similar chemical, mechanical, and electroplating methods as with a copper cylinder. Basically the step of copper plating (to permit engraving copper) is replaced by a process of electroplating zinc. Laser engraving opens several new doors for gravure printing. The unwanted saw tooth effect with fine fonts can be reduced. Indirectlaser engraving processes use a light-sensitive black layer that is applied onto the copper of the gravure cylinder. The laser removes this layer in accordance with the image (on the basis of already available digital data files). The gravure cylinder is then etched.

As in every conventional printing process, in gravure printing there is also an impression roller. This cylinder must be sufficiently stable and as small as possible in its diameter to assure a narrow printing nip for a better (i. e., sharper) print of the gravure cylinder. Therefore, previously (prior to 1960), it was common to arrange the gravure cylinder, a smaller intermediate roller (impression roller), and a larger cylinder above one another in a three-roller system. (If the small intermediate roller were brought into contact with the gravure cylinder without the pressure from the large cylinder, there would be too large a deflection of the impression cylinder. Hence, the contact pressure in the center of the two cylinders would no longer be sufficient in the printing nip. The impression roller coveringconsists of a special rubber layer of high shore hardness and is applied seamlessly. The impression roller is driven non-positively via the gravure cylinder when in contact with the printing material. In order to promote the transfer of inkfrom the etched gravure cylinder onto the paper wrapped around the impression roller, the impression roller or the web is electrostatically chargedjust beforehand. The ink meniscus (the top surface of a column of liquid) in the ink cells is thus raised and wets the paper more effectively. This device, which works with special voltage generators, is called ESA (Electro Static Assist). For this the impression roller must be supported by its bearings in an electrically insulated manner.

 In gravure printing the ink must be applied into engraved cells of the gravure cylinder surface. For this the ink must have a very low viscosity – it mainly consists of a solvent with a low boiling point (Toluene) and pigment- containing resins or resin-embedded pigments. To fill the indented elements, that is, the etched or engraved cells, only requires an ink pan that is filled with gravure printing ink, into which the rotating gravure cylinder is immersed. In order to prevent strong foam formation and splashing of the ink, a pan roller with a soft covering runs simultaneously in the ink pan. Due to friction, this roller runs more slowly than the gravure cylinder circumference. This allows the application of a homogenous ink film onto the gravure cylinder without splashing. Special splash guard plates on the gravure cylinder ends also prevent ink splashes at the cylinder edges and the superfluous ink falls into the ink trough beneath the height adjustable ink pan. From the ink trough, the ink flows into an ink tank positioned in front of the printing unit there it is mixed with fresh ink, cleaned by filters, its viscosity is checked and it is pumped back into the ink pan. Since the gravure cylinder also takes up ink on the non-printing areas when dipped into the ink pan, the superfluous ink must be removed from the gravure cylinder surface by means of a doctor blade. This blade is often referred to as the “soul” of gravure printing; its design is of immense importance. The blade itself simply consists of a thin, wear-resistant steel strip that is bent slightly and mounted in a blade holder. Previously, a distinction was made between a thicker support blade, located above and set slightly further back, and the blade itself. Today, it is usual to use blades with thicker but shorter profiles.

The ink used for gravure printing has a low viscosity, so that the ink in the cells can run out properly and be transferred onto the paper. This low viscosity is principally achieved by using a high proportion of solvent with low boiling point in the ink. To dry the printed ink, the solvent must evaporate in a high velocity air dryer after leaving the printing nip.

 

Рис. 2

 Gravure printing enables high-quality and consistent reproduction of the finest photographic details in even the smallest of images on thin and flexible printing material

and a large number of multiple-ups on one gravure cylinder. Furthermore, this process achieves

the highest, most constant and continuously reproducible print quality. Moreover, printing on both sides of the web can be carried out easily in one pass, even with an alternating number of colors. Webs printed in gravure printing can be finished immediately and long runs can almost always be printed with one set of gravure cylinders. Many brand-name goods manufacturers employ gravure printing for the printing of their packaging for cigarettes, candy, soup packets, coffee, cakes, pastries, butter, and cheese. Even washing detergent boxes, plastic bags, and wrapping paper are often printed on gravure presses.

 

 

ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY

 

Words and Word Combinations

 

1. intaglio
2. engraving
3. etching
4. depression
5. gapless gravure cylinder
6. galvanic
7. thick-walled
8. flanged journal
9. pigment paper
10. chrome saline solution
11. lathe –like
12. diamond stylus
13. penetrate
14. laser beam
15. solid-state laser
16. chrome-plated
17. grinding
18. saw tooth effect
19. deflection
20. ink meniscus
21. low viscosity
22. indented elements
23. foam formatting
24.  ink splashing
25. ink trough
26. doctor blade

 

1. brand-name
2. washing detergent
3. wrapping paper

 

 

ACTIVITIES