Printing member having a transferred image and a method for fabricating it

A method of fabricating an imaged lithographic printing member, the method comprising:

• imaging a selected image onto an image-transfer film by applying an imaging-carrying material on selected areas of said image-transfer film;
• applying a fluid formulation onto a substrate and/or the imaged image-transfer film;
• laminating the imaged image-transfer film with the substrate such that the fluid formulation is captured in between and the imaging-carrying material is dipped into the fluid formulation;
• and
• curing the fluid formulation to form a solid imaging layer, said solid imaging layer comprising said imaging-carrying material such that a surface of said imaging layer comprises a mirror image of said selected image.

An imaged lithographic printing member comprising:

• a solid substrate;
• and
• an imaging layer over the substrate, wherein an imaged area of a surface of said imaging layer comprises a mirror image of a selected image,
• said imaged lithographic printing member is produced by:
• imaging the selected image onto an image-transfer film by applying an image-carrying material onto said image-transfer film;
• applying a fluid formulation onto said substrate and/or the imaged image-transfer film;
• laminating the imaged image-transfer film with the substrate such that the fluid formulation is captured in between and the imaging-carrying material is dipped into the fluid formulation;
• and
• curing the fluid layer to form said imaging layer such that the imaged areas comprise the mirror image of the selected image.

An on-demand plate-making apparatus comprising:

• a substrate handling unit to hold and conduct a substrate,
• a lamination handling unit to hold and conduct an imaged image-transfer
• film having an imaging-carrying material thereon;
• and
• an applicator to apply a fluid formulation onto the substrate and/or the imaged image-transfer film,
• wherein during the lamination of the imaged image-transfer film with the substrate the fluid formulation is captured in between the imaged image-transfer film and the substrate and the imaging-carrying material is dipped into the fluid formulation.