Gravure printing base cylinder, and method of its manufacture

Abstract

A roto-gravure printing base cylinder is made by providing a cylindrical body (1), for example of steel, and applying thereover a cover layer (2) by thermal spraying, for example plasma-spraying, or arc-spraying. The cover layer is made of a material which is inert with respect to electrolytes used in applying a further copper layer over the cover layer to form a finished roto-gravure cylinder for optical engraving, for example an electrochemical valve metal, preferably tantalum, niobium or, most desirably, titanium oxide, forming a matrix in which, before application of the material as a layer on the steel cylinder, electrochemically active materials are applied made of a metal, preferably of the platinum group or other noble metal, and uniformly distributed over the surface, settled on the matrix material.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.