Method for thermal treatment of relief surface for a relief printing form
AssigneeE. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorsCarl Bernard Arnold, Masayuki Kato
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention pertains to a method for preparing a printing form from a photosensitive element by thermal treatment, wherein a gas jet emitting from a nozzle assembly impinges the exterior surface of the element to smooth or polish and mitigate marks and deformations that can be generated during development. Impingement with a heated gas jet provides surface polishing from rapid and specific convective heat flux to the exterior surface of the printing plate.
Claims19
A method for preparing a relief printing form from a photosensitive element having an exterior surface and comprising a layer of a photopolymerizable composition capable of being partially liquefied, comprising the steps of:
- (a) heating the exterior surface to a temperature to cause a portion of the layer to liquefy and form liquefied material;
- (b) contacting the photosensitive element with a development medium to allow the liquefied material to be removed by the development medium and to form a relief surface, whereby the development medium induces a mark on the relief surface;
- and
- (c) impinging the exterior surface of the photosensitive element with a jet of a heated gas to at least mitigate the mark on the relief surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.