Abstract: The invention relates to a method and a device for gravure painting using an enable and re-usable printing form. The starting point of said method is a gravure printing form comprising a basic grid that is designed for the maximum quality of ink that is transferred, said grid being uniformly filled in a filling process, a pattern being created by thermal ablation and the gravure printing form being erased after the printing process. The aim of the invention is to provide a method and device with which the complete removal of the filler material can be performed in a justifiable time in a reliable manner, even outside the printing press. To achieve this, the filler material and the residual ink is removed by a separate laser beam from that of the image-point transfer device.

Abstract: The aim of the invention is to further improve the ablation precision in terms of structuring the depressions of the basic grid of a gravure printing form and the printing behaviour of the depressions of a basic grid of an erasable and re-usable gravure printing form, by increasing the uniformity of the base of said depressions. To achieve this, the filler material that fills the erasable, re-usable printing gravure form is removed using laser beams, whose intensity profile over the cross-section of the laser beam corresponds to a pillbox profile.

Abstract: To develop a novel gravure printing form, which is simple to produce and is highly suitable with respect to a variation of formats, the invention discloses the use of a steel carrier sleeve in the form of a master sleeve. The initial form of said sleeve is a rectangular plate with a wall thickness of between 0.1 mm and 0.4 mm, which is given the desired hollow cylindrical form by bending, the opposing edges of the plate being permanently joined together, in particular by welding. A copper gravure layer is applied to the outer surface of the plate, a basic grid being etched into the copper gravure layer by means of a laser gravure process. The basic grid is then uniformly filled with a liquefiable substance to form the gravure printing form and the filler material is removed from the depressions of the basic grid to produce the required image.