sleeveX
Production floor, Wuxi
Company

From roll manufacturing to the sleeveX™ plate sleeve

sleeveX™ is made by Auclean, a developer and manufacturer of rolls and flexo ancillary equipment founded in 1995, with a factory in Wuxi and an R&D and sales centre in Shanghai

  • Wuxi factory
  • Shanghai sales and technical centre
1995
Founded
30+
Years in roll manufacturing
60+
Countries and regions served
2025
sleeveX™ launched as an independent brand
Evidence

Why we built sleeveX™

Before building our own, we spent more than twenty years as the exclusive China agent for one of the world’s leading plate sleeve brands — selling them and providing the technical service. That work showed us where sleeves of this type fail: outer diameters grown past tolerance, surfaces lifted off, end faces split, heavy to handle, with swollen cores. sleeveX™ was designed layer by layer against that list.

  • 01The core swells, lifting the surface and the outer diameterLow-absorption composite core, matched to the wall thickness
  • 02Heavy wallsX-MLW: about 40% lighter at the reference specification
  • 03End faces crack and delaminateOne-piece moulded SilentShield™ end face
Auclean headquarters in Shanghai, 2002 to 2020, with 3,300 m² of factory floor area, since demolished. Manufacturing moved to Wuxi
Auclean headquarters in Shanghai, 2002 to 2020, with 3,300 m² of factory floor area, since demolished. Manufacturing moved to Wuxi
The Wuxi site today, from above, with 12,000 m² of factory floor area. Architectural rendering
The Wuxi site today, from above, with 12,000 m² of factory floor area. Architectural rendering
Development history

What we built, and when

The sleeve work starts in 2012 with an inner liner. The plant that makes sleeveX™ opened in 2020

  1. 1995

    Shanghai Auclean Printing Machinery is founded and starts bringing flexo products into China

  2. 2002

    The Shanghai factory opens, producing laser-engraved ceramic anilox rollers and flexo ancillaries

  3. 2012

    First sleeve inner liner produced in trial

  4. 2014

    Auclean Roller Technologies is founded, for high-end rollers

  5. 2016

    Anilox sleeve production is localised

  6. 2018

    First carbon-fibre composite lightweight anilox produced in trial

  7. 2020

    Wuxi factory phase one opens and carbon-fibre composites join the product line. The automatic plate mounter takes a CI FLEXO TECH annual innovation award

  8. 2021

    The carbon-fibre air mandrel takes the same award

  9. 2022

    The CPC three-blade chamber launches and takes the award a third year running

  10. 2023

    Wuxi factory phase two

  11. 2025

    sleeveX™ plate sleeves launch and take the award in the same year

Milestones as recorded by Auclean

Technology

An in-house R&D team across five disciplines

Talk to an engineer
  1. 01
    Materials science
  2. 02
    Polymer chemistry and physics
  3. 03
    Engineering mechanics
  4. 04
    Mechanical manufacturing
  5. 05
    Printing technology
2025

2025 CI FLEXO TECH Technology Innovation Award

Awarded to sleeveX™ in the year of its launch.

2025 CI FLEXO TECH Technology Innovation Award
2025 CI FLEXO TECH Technology Innovation Award
2025 CI FLEXO TECH Technology Innovation Award
Auclean

Auclean flexo ancillary equipment

Products
  • 01
    Ceramic anilox rolls
  • 02
    Chamber doctor blade systems
  • 03
    Automatic cleaning machines
  • 04
    Semi-automatic and automatic plate mounters
  • 05
    sleeveX™ plate sleeves
  • 06
    sleevePort™ mobile sleeve store
Contact

Where we are

Wuxi factory

No. 111 Lianqing Road, Xishan District, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China

Shanghai sales and technical centre

Room 501, Building 11A, No. 1698 Minyi Road, Songjiang District, Shanghai, China

Or reach us directly
Phone (Shanghai)
+86-21-6769 1669

Replies from an engineer, Monday to Friday, China time (UTC+8)

Start with one sleeve

Send us the sleeve ID (mandrel OD), face length and repeat of one press. We will quote a matching sleeve for a trial.