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US 5,735,983 AGranted
Method for manufacturing a printing plate
AssigneePolyfibron Technologies, Inc.
InventorsWilliam Krebs Goss, Everett Eugene Garrett
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An exemplary method for manufacturing a printing plate from photocurable elements comprises the step of extruding a photocurable polymer onto a moving carrier to achieve self-lamination in a nip-free manner.
Claims21
A method for manufacturing a printing element, comprising the steps of:
- providing a sheet die having a continuous lip opening and bolts for controlling the die lip opening, whereby the thickness of an extruded polymeric sheet can be controlled;
- extruding a molten polymer sheet which is or will become photocurable in that portions thereof can be cured when subjected to light or other radiation of an appropriate wavelength, said photocurable polymer comprising an elastomer compound, an ethylenically unsaturated compound having at least one terminal ethylenic group, and a photoinitiator, the sheet having major faces extending continuously and coextensively in a portion of the sheet width between opposite sheet edges;
- moving a carrier web at a location subsequent to the point of extrusion such that a major face of the extended polymer sheet, while in a molten state, is self-laminated continuously and directly in a nip-free manner to the moving carrier;
- and
- attaching a base sheet to the photocurable polymer sheet.
2 more elements
A method for manufacturing a printing element, comprising the steps of:
- providing a sheet die having a continuous lip opening and thermally controlled die bolts for controlling the die lip opening, whereby the thickness of an extruded polymeric sheet can be controlled;
- providing a non-contact sensor which provides an output corresponding to the thickness of a polymeric sheet extruded from the sheet die and a microprocessor-based controller responsive to the output of the non-contact sensor, said controller operative to correlate the sensor output with a predetermined thickness and send signals whereby the thermal die bolt temperature, and hence the size of the die lip opening, is controlled;
- extruding through the die lip opening a molten polymer sheet which is or will become photocurable in that portions thereof can be cured when subjected to light or other radiation of an appropriate wavelength, said photocurable polymer comprising an elastomer compound, an ethylenically unsaturated compound having at least one terminal ethylenic group, and a photoinitiator, the sheet having major faces extending continuously and coextensively in a portion of the sheet width between opposite sheet edges;
- moving a carrier web at a location subsequent to the point of extrusion from the die lip opening such that a major face of the extruded polymer sheet, while in a molten state, is self-laminated continuously and directly in a nip-free manner to the moving carrier;
- and
- attaching a cover element to the polymer sheet.
3 more elements
A method for manufacturing a printing element, comprising the steps of:
- providing a sheet die having a continuous lip opening, said lip opening defining a center plane;
- extruding a molten polymer sheet which is or will become photocurable, the sheet having major faces extending continuously and coextensively in a portion of the sheet width between opposite sheet edges;
- and
- moving a carrier web at a location subsequent to the point of extrusion such that a major face of the extruded polymer sheet, while in a molten state, is self-laminated continuously and directly in a nip-free manner to the moving carrier at an initial point of self-lamination;
- wherein:
- said sheet die center plane is positioned at an angle that is 90.degree.-135.degree. with respect to said carrier moving away from said initial point of self-lamination;
- and
- said polymer sheet is self-laminated to said moving carrier moving away from the point of self lamination, for at least a certain distance after the initial point of self-lamination, in a direction increasing in angle away from the initial angle at which self-lamination occurs.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.