Water developable photopolymerizable composition and printing plate element containing same

Abstract

A water developable, photopolymerizable composition and printing plates prepared from such composition are disclosed. The photopolymerizable composition includes at least one water soluble polymer, such as polyvinyl alcohol or partially saponified polyvinyl acetate, at least one photopolymerization initiator, and the condensation reaction product of N-methylol acrylamide, N-methylol methacrylamide, N-alkyloxymethyl acrylamide or N-alkyloxymethyl methacrylamide with a melamine derivative of the following formula: ##STR1## wherein, R.sub.1 is CH.sub.2 OR, R.sub.2 is H or CH.sub.2 OR, and R is C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl. A thermal polymerization inhibitor may also be included in the composition. Plates prepared from the composition demonstrate improved hardness and water resistance, compared to previously known photopolymerizable compositions, and also achieve excellent image quality.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.