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US 5,888,701 AGranted
Method for making a flexographic printing plate from a flexographic printing element having a powder layer
AssigneeE. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorRoxy Fan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A photosensitive printing element having an overall layer of powder material and a process for making a flexographic printing plate from such an element are disclosed. The photosensitive element includes a support, a photopolymerizable layer, and a layer of powder material on the photopolymerizable layer. The layer of powder material can be opaque or transparent depending upon desired use.
Claims8
A method for making a flexographic printing plate from a photosensitive element which comprises:
- (a) a support shaped into a hollow cylinder;
- (b) at least one seamless photopolymerizable layer on an exterior surface of the support comprising an elastomeric binder, at least one monomer and an initiator, an entire exterior surface of the photopolymerizable layer opposite the support being tacky or substantially tacky, said cylindrical support and seamless photopolymerizable layer being expandable and contractible;
- and
- (c) a non-film layer of particulate powder material on the exterior surface of the photopolymerizable layer, wherein the powder layer is opaque and insensitive to actinic radiation and renders the surface tack-free, comprising
- (1) imagewise removing areas of the powder layer from the cylindrical element, to create an in-situ cylindrical mask;
- (2) overall exposing the photopolymerizable layer through the cylindrical mask with actinic radiation to form an imagewise exposed element;
- (3) treating the element of step (2) with a solution to remove the areas of the photopolymerizable layer which were not exposed to actinic radiation and the areas of the mask not removed in step (1).
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.