Real-time observation of the reception of silver ink in soft blanket gravure printing

In this paper, we propose a printing process of a novel printing method called Soft Blanket Gravure (SBG). This method differs from conventional gravure offset printing method in that it uses a very soft and thick offset blanket (soft blanket). Compared to the conventional method, more silver ink is received from the printing plate and the transfer of ink onto the substrate is more complete under various conditions when SBG printing is used. In order to clarify mechanisms of printing processes of the SBG printing method, we have developed observation system that can observe printing processes directly. By observing the reception process, we find that the structure of the soft blanket material is suitable for solvent absorption and this is the reason behind the superiority of SBG printing in terms of the receiving and transferring of ink.