Ettan Press :: Quality Machinery For Printing

Ettan Presses: The Prospect of Fine Impressions

It began in Denmark in 1968. An artist-engineer en route to America, finding his conventional press hard to transport, designed the first portable Ettan press. Now, over 3,000 Ettan presses are used worldwide.
What distinguishes Ettan products from the competition? We like to think its durability, appearance, lightweight, fast delivery from stock, prompt and effective follow-up of customer requests, and strict adherence to our extensive warranty.

Ettan presses combine contemporary design with advanced technology. Traditional press design resorts to overuse of steel. Ettan, in contrast, combines special alloys, aircraft bearings superior to bushings, and innovative engineering to dissipate stress dynamically. We use alloys that are non-corroding, stronger than steel, and lightweight. Our upper rollers have a large diameter and an ellipsoid profile along the roller axis, giving an absolutely uniform pressure and smoothness during printing. Ettan presses are equipped with micrometric vernier scales to enable the printmaker, when reprinting a plate, to reset the upper roller exactly.

Ettan uses only high-quality face gears to achieve the high torque and smooth drive which cheap chain-drives cannot provide. For safety and appearance, our gear mechanism is completely enclosed.

Every metal plate has memory, and even the thickest steel bed will eventually warp. We use laminated phenolic resin (LPR) which, although more expensive, is superior to steel, durable and flexible, but has no memory. LPR is produced by imbedding thousands of lamels into a resin, later cured at high pressure and temperature. LPR is completely inert to organic solvents, and, unlike steel, does not corrode and will not warp, even with long use.

We believe that our presses are so strong that they will outlast their owners, however young, and thus feel comfortable issuing our Ten-Year Warranty against breakage in printing-use.