How to calculate the cost of a gravure print cylinder

There should be exta charge on gravure print cylinders when the customers would like to print their logo on the standup pouch packages. Some times, the customers may get confused with the quotes from the suppliers, as the prices for the print cylinders may be quite different.

So, the customer may like to get the best cost of the print cylinders for their artwork. Frankly, it is complex knowledge and complicated operation for each print service supplier to calculate the exact cost of a gravure print cylinder, as it is really concerned with many factors.

In this post, we will take the 3litre spout pouch for windshield washer fluids for example, and calculate the cost of the print cylinder.

Package Dimension

The package dimension of this 3litre spout pouch package for windshield washer fluids is W250XH310+BG120mm, with diecut line as below.

Artwork laid on print cylinder

so, the next step is to lay the artwork onto the surface of print cylinders. Before doing that, we need to know how the bottom is realized onto the standing doypack. For 3litre spout pouch package, in order to make the bottom stronger, we usually choose to get a reinforced material for the bottom and supplemented onto the doypack in the bag-making line, as below picture.

that means, we do not need to lay the artwork of bottom onto the print cylinders, and we only need to take care of the artwork on the front and back side. Below picture shows the way for our factory to lay the front and back artwork onto the cylinders, and of course, you do not need exactly understand the details of this craftsmanship, it is a complex thing.

I just want to show you the surface area of this print cylinder needed with a simplified graphic, as below. Total web length means the length for the cylinders, 310*2+30= 650mm. The perimeter is 250mm*2 = 500mm.

Luckily, for us, we have the press roller with effective width 650mm, so we can make the cylinder at 650mm to match.

Surface Area of print cylinder

In this case, we are going to make cylinder with size as below.

• Length: 650mm = 65cm
• Perimeter: 500mm = 50cm

and the surface area of the print cylinder is 65cm*50cm = 3,250 cm2. so the next step is to figure out the unit price for the print cylinder per square centimeter.

Price per square centimeter

Gravure print serves for a wide range of applicatioins, from the lower market of shopping bags, to the high market of cigarette packaging print, even the print of paper money is realized by gravure print. so that cause quite different levels of print cylinders, with the most common price as below, in RMB/cm2.

As our company serves in food packaging areas, we are not able to choose the print cylinder with the lowest price, that is not able to realize the expected print effect for most of our orders. In actual produce, we choose the print cylinder with unit price RMB 0.16/cm2.

Cost of a print cylinder

so we can easily calculte the cost of a print cylinder, with final cost RMB 520.

RMB 520 can only be taken as the real cost for the print cylinder, and in our print services, we will have to store the cylinders for our customers, and maintain the cylinders with oil, that will cause other extra costs. So, when we quote to our customers, we will have to make some margin up, and set at RMB 600.

Cost of a set of print cylinders

As explained previously, an artwork design may have to be realized in several colors, such as CMYK + white color+ spot color + matte finish + high glossy. Let’s just say, this artwork will just need 5 cylinders, the final cost would be 5*RMB 600= RMB 3,000

ok, it comes to the end of this post, and if you have any questions, just reach us for further assistance.