Real Potential, or Not?

How well sleeves can be remade depends a lot on the engraver, too, Byam said. While some tradehouses have a success rate upwards of 85 percent, others can only successfully re-engrave sleeves 60 percent of the time, he said.

Material costs: There are financial upsides to gravure printing sleeves, too. The rising price of steel has made the cost of a traditional gravure printing cylinder base about 33 to 50 percent more expensive than the cost of a similar sleeve, Froehlich said. Modern sleeves consist of layers of chrome and copper; or chrome, copper and nickel, all moderately priced in comparison to today's steel.