中文Gravure cylinders are the part of the flexible packaging supply chain that almost never makes news. They are engineered consumables — precise, expensive, slow to produce and utterly determinative of print quality. When a converter cannot get cylinders on schedule, presses idle regardless of how much capacity sits on the floor. TCPL Packaging has decided that dependency is worth owning outright, and then worth selling to everyone else.
Through its subsidiary Accura Technik, TCPL is expanding its gravure cylinder manufacturing and engraving facility at Silvassa, with completion targeted before December 2026. The expansion will effectively double the plant’s existing capacity.
From Captive Supply to Merchant Business
The Silvassa facility was commissioned in November 2025 following an investment of around INR 50 crore, and was designed from the outset to serve both TCPL’s internal requirements and the broader gravure printing industry. Its location provides access to the packaging and printing ecosystem of western India, along with logistical advantages and a pool of skilled labour.
Saket Kanoria, managing director of TCPL Packaging, reports the facility is currently running at around 75% utilization, with output split roughly evenly between TCPL’s own requirements and external customers. As new capacity comes online, the company expects the third-party share to grow.
That expectation reframes what the project is. Reaching 75% utilization within roughly nine months of commissioning, while already sending half of production to outside customers, suggests the external demand was not a byproduct of spare capacity — it was there from the start. The stated ambition is to develop Accura Technik into an independent supplier to the wider packaging market rather than a cost centre inside a converter.
What the Plant Actually Does
Accura Technik’s Silvassa operation is built as an integrated facility covering the full production sequence: cylinder preparation, copper and chrome plating, polishing, engraving and proofing. Critically, it houses both laser and electronic stylus engraving technologies, supported by automated polishing and cutting systems.
Running both engraving methods matters commercially. Electronic stylus engraving remains the workhorse for conventional packaging work, while laser engraving suits particular substrate and screen requirements. A plant with both can quote across a wider range of specifications without turning work away — which is precisely what a merchant supplier needs in order to compete with dedicated cylinder houses.
Production begins with steel cylinders, which are cleaned and degreased before surface preparation and copper plating. The copper surface is then polished to the required finish before the cylinder proceeds to engraving. Dedicated areas handle cylinder storage, inspection and quality control, where surface defects, engraving accuracy and colour or shade consistency can be assessed under controlled conditions before dispatch.
The plant’s most distinctive feature is that the entire manufacturing environment is air-conditioned, with temperature and humidity controlled throughout. For anyone outside the process this can sound like an amenity; it is in fact a technical requirement. Variations in temperature and humidity affect cylinder dimensions and surface characteristics, which in turn influence engraving accuracy and print consistency. Because gravure cells are measured in microns, the plating and engraving stages are unusually sensitive to environmental drift. A controlled environment is intended to minimize those variations, reducing rework and holding tighter process tolerances — a quality claim that is also, in practice, a cost claim.
Water and Power
Cylinder manufacturing is chemically intensive by nature, involving degreasing, copper plating and chrome plating. The Silvassa plant addresses this with a dedicated wastewater treatment and zero-liquid-discharge system, allowing process water to be treated and recycled within the facility. This cuts dependence on fresh water and limits industrial wastewater discharge — meaningful in a plating operation, and meaningful in western India, where industrial water availability is a live constraint.
The facility also draws on captive solar generation, which meets a significant proportion of electricity requirements when conditions permit. Together, the water recycling and renewable generation form part of TCPL Packaging’s broader effort to reduce the environmental footprint of its manufacturing operations. For multinational brand owners auditing their packaging supply chains, a ZLD-equipped, partially solar-powered cylinder plant is easier to sign off than a conventional one.
Sizing the Opportunity
TCPL estimates the Indian gravure cylinder market at around 1.5 million cylinders annually. Accura Technik sees particular opportunity in specialized applications, including embossing cylinders and other requirements spanning multiple packaging segments — the higher-value, lower-volume end of the market where technical capability matters more than price per unit.
The capacity expansion is expected to improve service to external customers through greater production availability and shorter lead times. In a business where a converter’s press schedule can hinge on cylinder delivery, lead time is frequently the deciding factor in a supplier decision, ahead of unit cost. Consistent cylinder quality and the ability to handle specialized requirements are expected to be the key differentiators as Accura Technik expands its market presence.
The Dual Advantage
For TCPL itself, captive manufacturing capability delivers benefits that extend past raw capacity. Greater control over cylinder availability supports printing schedules directly. Keeping artwork and cylinder-related development inside the company’s own ecosystem provides additional security for customers’ designs — a genuine consideration for brand owners who worry about packaging artwork circulating through third-party engraving houses. And the facility supports new product development, letting TCPL and Accura Technik collaborate more closely on cylinder specifications and printing requirements. The plant’s range extends from flexible packaging through to cigarette cartons, reflecting TCPL’s own product mix.
The next phase pushes further outward. With capacity set to double by the end of 2026, the company plans to explore export opportunities and establish Accura Technik as a significant independent player in the gravure cylinder industry.
The overall strategy gives TCPL Packaging a genuine dual advantage: a more secure, controlled supply of gravure cylinders for its own presses, plus a new business platform capable of serving external packaging and printing companies. It is vertical integration that has been engineered to pay for itself twice — once in production security, and again as a standalone revenue line.
Source: THE PACKMAN, August 19, 2026 — TCPL Packaging expands gravure cylinder capacity with Silvassa investment
