The cutting cylinder may be a blanket (18), or printing cylinder in a printing machine, or a dedicated support cylinder in a stand alone cutting assembly.

An impression cylinder (5) is provided opposite the printing cylinder and the material (6) to be printed on is fed through the nip of the printing cylinder (1) and the impression cylinder (5).

The cutting cylinder is adjusted to have a diameter which matches the diameter of a blanket or printing cylinder (12) of a printing machine.

A flexible carrier sheet is attached under tension to a cutting cylinder identical in dimensions to a blanket (12), or printing cylinder of a printing machine.

One or more flexible printing plates are installed on a print cylinder (10) through the use of one or more slots formed axially along the cylinder (10).

The length of the cutting cylinder (78) is at least as great as the length of the blanket or printing cylinder (12).

The printing cylinder (1) has the ink receiving cells (2) formed with a nanocomposite polymeric material.

An air manifold that can be attached to a print cylinder to provide air for mounting expandable sleeves on the print cylinder.

A phasing assembly (90, 120, 42) for initially selecting a phasing relationship between web and print cylinder and automatically maintaining the selected phasing relationship is also disclosed.

During a test phase and before the engraving process, small-size reference cups are engraved in a test area (26) on the printing cylinder (1) and their geometrical dimensions are estimated in order to calibrate the engraving control signal (GS).