Production of flexographic printing plates by thermal development

US6844142B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• BASF Drucksysteme GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Jens Schadebrodt · Mainz, DE
• Margit Hiller · Karlstadt, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Apr 14, 2003
• Grant date: Jan 18, 2005
• Expiry date: Apr 14, 2023

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S430/146
• WIPO field: Textile and paper machines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

Flexographic printing plates are produced by thermal development by a process in which an imagewise exposed flexographic printing element is developed by heating and removing the softened, unpolymerized parts of the relief-forming layer, the flexographic printing element used comprising an olefin/(meth)acrylate copolymer having an olefin content of from 50 to 94 mol %. The photopolymerizable flexographic printing element comprises an olefin/(meth)acrylate copolymer having a content of from 50 to 94 mol % of olefin monomers, from 6 to 50 mol % of (meth)acrylate monomers and from 0 to 5 mol % of further comonomers. This flexographic printing element is used for the production of flexographic printing plates both by thermal development and by development by means of washout compositions.