EP1428666B1 - Bereitung von Flexodruckplatten mittels Tintenstrahlaufzeichnung - Google Patents

Bereitung von Flexodruckplatten mittels Tintenstrahlaufzeichnung Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1428666B1
EP1428666B1 EP02102717A EP02102717A EP1428666B1 EP 1428666 B1 EP1428666 B1 EP 1428666B1 EP 02102717 A EP02102717 A EP 02102717A EP 02102717 A EP02102717 A EP 02102717A EP 1428666 B1 EP1428666 B1 EP 1428666B1
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EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
layer
layers
curing
plate
image
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Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Fee Related
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EP02102717A
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English (en)
French (fr)
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EP1428666A1 (de
Inventor
Bart Verhoest
Bart Verlinden
Eddie Daems
Luc Leenders
Kris Vangeel
Wim Helsen
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Agfa NV
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Agfa Graphics NV
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Priority to EP02102717A priority Critical patent/EP1428666B1/de
Priority to DE60219807T priority patent/DE60219807T2/de
Priority to JP2003410730A priority patent/JP2004188983A/ja
Priority to US10/732,072 priority patent/US7875321B2/en
Publication of EP1428666A1 publication Critical patent/EP1428666A1/de
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Publication of EP1428666B1 publication Critical patent/EP1428666B1/de
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    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41C—PROCESSES FOR THE MANUFACTURE OR REPRODUCTION OF PRINTING SURFACES
    • B41C1/00—Forme preparation
    • B41C1/003—Forme preparation the relief or intaglio pattern being obtained by imagewise deposition of a liquid, e.g. by an ink jet
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J11/00—Devices or arrangements  of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, for supporting or handling copy material in sheet or web form
    • B41J11/0015—Devices or arrangements  of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, for supporting or handling copy material in sheet or web form for treating before, during or after printing or for uniform coating or laminating the copy material before or after printing
    • B41J11/002—Curing or drying the ink on the copy materials, e.g. by heating or irradiating
    • B41J11/0021—Curing or drying the ink on the copy materials, e.g. by heating or irradiating using irradiation
    • B41J11/00214—Curing or drying the ink on the copy materials, e.g. by heating or irradiating using irradiation using UV radiation

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a method for making flexographic printing plates.
  • the invention is related to provide a computer to plate system for flexography.
  • Flexographic printing plates are well known for use in letterpress printing, particularly on surfaces which are soft and easily deformable, such as packaging materials, e.g., cardboard, plastic films, aluminium foils etc.
  • Flexographic printing plates can be prepared from photopolymerisable compositions, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,323,637 and 4,427,759.
  • the photopolymerisable compositions generally comprise an elastomeric binder, at least one monomer and a photo-initiator.
  • Photosensitive elements generally have a photopolymerisable layer interposed between a support and a coversheet or multi-layer cover element.
  • EP-A-654 150 a flexographic printing element having a incorporated IR ablatable layer and process for making a flexographic printing plate is disclosed.
  • An opaque IR sensitive layer is image-wise removed by e.g. a semiconductor laser followed by exposure of the photosensitive layer using a back flash UV exposure and a top UV exposure using the image-wise ablated opaque layer as a mask.
  • the plate is then developed to obtain the finished flexographic printing plate.
  • the top layer (black mask), the barrier layer and unexposed parts of the photosensitive layer are removed.
  • the obtained printing plate can then be mounted onto a press or it is possible to mount it on a sleeve adapted to be quickly mounted onto a printing press.
  • the plate itself has a cylindrical shape for printing the endless image.
  • Fig. 1 illustrates a drawback of prior art flexographic printing plates.
  • the resulting reproduction 3 of a solid 2 on the plate 1 tend to show halo effects 4 as illustrated in the upper side of Fig. 1.
  • edges of a solid 2 tend to have a lower printing pressure and thus not squeeze the ink from between the flexographic plate 1 and the printed material as hard as in the middle of the solid areas.
  • Another drawback is that the overall processing time is long. Especially the development and drying time can take a lot of time. In EP-A-654 150 drying times up to two hours are mentioned. Total time for making a plate can take up to 4 hours.
  • the obtained printing plate has the same properties (hardness, roughness) over the entire area and depth. This can result in difficulties in adjusting the printing press settings in order to obtain a good final image without halo effect and with good reproduction of small dots.
  • EP-A-641 648 a system is described which gives the possibility to make a flexographic printing plate using an inkjet system.
  • a photopolymeric ink is jetted onto a substrate to form a positive or negative image which is afterwards cured by UV radiation to form a positive or negative printing plate.
  • a printing plate is directly obtained without processing and there is no need to development or after processing etc..
  • a drawback of the system described in EP-A-641 648 is that there is no control of the finished product and thus the resulting quality is not ensured.
  • the produced printing plate has the same properties over the entire area of the plate.
  • the present invention provides a system capable of controlling the plate during production of it. Several properties of the generated flexographic printing plate can be controlled during fabrication. A plate having better properties can be produced.
  • FIG. 2A A possible apparatus using an X-Y table for making flexographic printing plates using a method according to the present invention is shown in FIG. 2A.
  • the apparatus comprises an X-Y table 6 which can be controlled in the directions X and Y.
  • a printing plate 7 comprising a support and intermediate layers, is provided.
  • a frame 8 carrying an inkjet printhead 9 which can also be controlled in the Z direction.
  • a light source 10 is mounted next to and after the printhead in the fast scan direction for generating curing radiation after jetting, and a laser profilometer 11. These elements will be described later on.
  • FIG. 2B An alternative apparatus using a fast scan printhead 9 shuttling in the Y direction over a plate 7 on a slow scan table 6 moving in the X direction for making flexographic printing plates using a method according to the present invention is shown in FIG. 2B.
  • Movements in X and Y direction are performed by two separate translation systems.
  • the printhead 9 can be controlled in the
  • a light source 10 and profilometer are also provided.
  • FIG. 2C An apparatus using a drum principle for making flexographic printing plates using a method according to the present invention is shown in FIG. 2C.
  • the drum 13 can be rotated by motor 14 thus moving the plate 7 past the printhead 9.
  • the rotation provides the fast scan movement.
  • the printhead 9 can move along the drum 13 in the X direction.
  • the distance of the printhead 9 from the drum 13 can be regulated and provides movement in the Z direction.
  • Coupled to the printhead 9 is provided the light source 10 while here the profilometer 11 is mounted separately above the drum 13.
  • An extra light source can be provided.
  • Printing is performed on a appropriate substrate comprising a support.
  • the support can be mounted onto the drum 13 or the support can be a sleeve fitting over the drum 13.
  • the advantage of a drum system is that the flexographic printing plate 7 is prepared in the geometric form wherein it will be used. Plates made on a table have to be deformed to mount them on a printing press. Registering sleeves is less difficult because sleeves can be recorded versus a fixed reference and the strain which occurs during tensioning is more under control compared to flat flexoplates
  • a curable ink composition preferably containing an elastomer component Upon a substrate subsequent layers of a e.g. a curable ink composition preferably containing an elastomer component are jetted by an inkjet printhead 9.
  • the ink has a composition providing easy jetting and resulting in the desired elastic or viscoelastic properties resilience properties of the jetted layers afterwards.
  • a possible inkjet printhead 9 which can be used typically has a print resolution of 720dpi and has a multilevel capability. This means that each drop printed by the printhead 9 can have a variable but controllable volume, e.g. each drop is produced by a number of small sub-drops with a constant volume of 3pl(picoliter) which merge in flight and become one drop.
  • the current head 9 can produce 16 levels of volumes, 0, 3, 6,9,... 45pl.
  • Another head of the same product family produces droplets of 7pl and could be used for building op the rough base structure as described later on.
  • the printing plate 7 comprises usually a support which can be e.g.
  • the main purpose of the support is to provide sufficient or desired rigidity to the plate, the composition is less important.
  • intermediate layers are provided to obtain a substrate appropriate for recording.
  • a possible type of layer functions is an elastic layer provided on the support which serves as the base of the flexographic printing plate.
  • the elastic layer may also be a visco-elastic layer and may be formed by a layer containing a elastomer, but also other types of elastic layers can be used.
  • Foam layers having a cell structure preferably a open cell structure can provide a good base layer.
  • Another possibility is the use of a thermoplastic elastomer. It is only important that the appropriate elasticity and resilience parameters are obtained.
  • This layer can provide control over the overall thickness and elasticity of the printing plate. This provides several advantages :
  • a further advantage is that due to the harder upper layer the small dots are more stable during printing and the number of prints which can be obtained with the plate is higher due to better wear resistance.
  • Chemical incompatibility may cause undesirable swelling of layers resulting is destruction of the plate structure or art least giving deteriorated printing results.
  • these base layers are preferably covered with a thin (e.g. 5 ⁇ m) intermediate impermeable visco-elastic layer having also desirable properties regarding chemical compatibility.
  • This layer can be applied to the base layer by e.g. coating, laminating, glueing etc.. Alternatively such a layer could also be jetted on top of the base layer.
  • the jetted curable ink compositions may typically comprise :
  • the elastomer binder may comprise a single component or can contain a mixture of several components.
  • an appropriate component or mixture can be used.
  • the ink composition need not to be curable.
  • the most important property is that drops of the ink can be immobilised before they tend to run out. This immobilisation provides the capability to form higher, more rigid structures to obtain a printing plate.
  • the jetted volume of the drop will cover a certain area of the substrate or underlying ink layer.
  • the ratio dot diameter/drop diameter is called the formfactor.
  • a 3pl drop (level 1 in the multilevel system) becomes a dot with a diameter of about 30 ⁇ m and a height of less than 4 ⁇ m depending upon the type of curing, the viscosity (and temperature of substrate).
  • the drop volume has a range of 3pl to 100pl.
  • Fig. 3 gives the relation of the number of drops per dot which corresponds to the driving signal given to the actuator and the dot height. Dots are mainly formed by firing multiple drops which merge in flight to obtain a bigger drop.
  • dot placement is very important to achieve small, fine structures such as for example a 3% point on a 1501pi printer.
  • a dot position accuracy of 3 ⁇ m can be achieved.
  • the print head can address every desired location on the substrate .
  • the inkjet recording process is controlled from a computing device steering the print head and the actuators generating the droplets.
  • the drops are jetted according to the desired pattern to be generated on the printing plate, resulting in a layer formed by the drops. Upon this layer a second layer is later added.
  • This second step is done by a curing system which comprise at least one radiation source for exposing the freshly jetted drops to the curing radiation.
  • the curing may be continuous but other possibilities are possible.
  • the time between jetting and curing is especially important a the drop tend to spread after it has settled on the substrate.
  • the e.g. the source of the curing radiation is provided immediately after the recording head. This can be done by mounting the radiation source at the side of the recording head. As drops are jetted they are immediately immobilised afterwards. This is called in-line curing.
  • the combined jetting and immobilisation step are closely intertwined and are performed simultaneously.
  • Illustrated in Fig. 4a is a UV lamp 15 forming a spot 16 for curing jetted dots.
  • the size of the spot is sufficient to cover the length of the nozzle array so that all jetted dots can be cured by the UV spot.
  • Fig. 4b illustrates the intensity profile from the UV spot.
  • the intensity curve has the form of a gaussian curve.
  • Fig. 4C illustrates the effect on the jetted dots.
  • Centre dots 17 receiving a high intensity radiation are rapidly immobilised and form high sharp dots while side dots 18 will be immobilised slower and exhibit more run-out, forming lower and broader dots.
  • Lamp power is preferably in the 10-200W range.
  • UV-A Long wavelength radiation
  • UV-C short wavelength radiation
  • the resulting properties of the online cured material can be controlled.
  • the curing is preferably not complete in order to obtain a good cohesion between the jetted drops of the consecutive layers deposited by the inkjet print head.
  • UV curing lamps can be used.
  • the basic mercury bulb denoted by H
  • the D bulb has it's mass of output in the longer wavelength region making it more suited to curing thicker coatings and ink systems.
  • the D bulb can be used to achieve a good cure depth.
  • cure doses may be reduced somewhat as higher intensity sources are used.
  • superior cure may be obtained by use of combinations of UV sources.
  • Longer wavelength sources iron or gallium doped
  • a typical dose required with an iron doped medium pressure mercury lamp ("D" bulb/spectrum) when curing an 8-15 ⁇ m thick layer is about 300-700mJ/cm 2 .
  • Jetted liquids or substrates can cause scattering of the curing radiation (UV,). If scattered radiation reaches the nozzle plate of the inkjet print head. Nozzles will tend to block easily. Therefore the bundle of curing radiation preferably is kept away from the print head and has an orientation pointing away from the printhead.
  • the ink is heated above room temperature in order to improve the jettability of the ink.
  • thermoplastic materials are included in the ink, it is advantageously to heat the ink to obtain a lower viscosity.
  • the substrate i.e. support and intermediate layers, including previously jetted and immobilised layers
  • the substrate is cooled before and/or during recording.
  • the lower temperature of the substrate on which the drops are jetted helps in temporarily immobilising the drops by cooling them down, preventing further runout before the immobilisation step fixes the drop by e.g. curing radiation.
  • the substrate is preferable cooled to a temperature between 5 and 25 °C.
  • curing radiation e.g. UV radiation
  • UV radiation is generated using a cold UV source.
  • wavelengths outside of the UV spectrum especially Infrared radiation (IR), generated by the UV source, usually a high temperature radiator, are filtered out to ensure that they do not reach the recording surface and provide no heating of the substrate.
  • IR Infrared radiation
  • the filtering can be done using appropriate optical filters in reflection or transmission mode absorbing IR radiation.
  • Recording is done layer after layer, gradually building the flexographic printing plate.
  • the distance of the print head to the plate can also be controlled.
  • the exact positioning of the drop may vary upon the distance between the inkjet nozzle plate and the receiver, therefor it is necessary to maintain the correct distance if a reliable positioning of the drops is required.
  • Inexact positioning may be caused by nozzles having a deviating firing direction.
  • Another important feature is that the positioning of a drop in a scanning inkjet system depends greatly on the time of flight a drop has before it hits the recording surface, this is the time between firing of the droplet and the moment the droplet hits the receiving surface.
  • the distance of the print head to the receiver can be kept to a fixed distance providing a lower accuracy.
  • a normal recording distance is about 1mm.
  • the printing plate structure is gradually built layer by layer. First the bottom layers of the plate are recorded, the distance of the print head is corrected for taking into account the thickness of the previously recorded layers and subsequent layers are added on top of the others.
  • a further aspect of the present invention relates to control of the topography of the printed layers.
  • This can be the overall topography regarding image content or to micro-topography elements such as the surface finish of the printed layers or the finished product.
  • the printed image can be checked by e.g. a laser profilometer in order to control the correctness of the obtained product.
  • the measurements can be done only at the final stage or regular checks can be made to detect defects in the printing plate being built by the subsequent layers.
  • the micro-topography can be measured using commercial available measurement systems.
  • This information can be obtained by measuring directly the height of the build layers or by measuring the layer thickness.
  • a possible measurement system is described in : "Koaxiale interferometrische Schichtendickenier" Photonik 9/2000 by Dr. Gerd Jakob JURCA Optoelektronik GmbH. The system has shown measurement ranges of up to 300 ⁇ m with a resolution of 10 nm and even details within an area of 0,1mm x 0,1mm can be imaged.
  • Measurement systems show a measurement range of 500 ⁇ m with a resolution better than 0,01% having a light spot diameter of 1 ⁇ m.
  • Measurement systems are normally based upon a contactless measuring process wherein thickness or distance is calculated based upon detected reflections of (laser) light upon layer boundaries.
  • known system can be adapted or new system can be designed to provide fast and reliable assessment of the height of the jetted layers over the whole surface of the plate with the needed resolution and speed.
  • the profilometer 11 can be mounted with the printhead on the same shuttling carriage as indicated in Fig. 2a and 2b.
  • a separate profilometer 11 can also be provided as indicated in Fig 2c.
  • the measured data is fed back to the recorder where the plate profile is compared to the desired profile for the printing plate. Out of the difference for each location of the printing plate it can be determined how many additional layers need to be jetted on that location.
  • the measurements can be performed during the jetting of the plate or measurements can be done in between the several recording steps.
  • the frequency of measurements steps can be set at any desired level. Preferably more measurements will needed during the final steps of recording the plate in order to obtain the desired profile.
  • Fig. 2c For each location on the printing plate 7 the height is measured by the profilometer 11. Preferably this information is fed back to the recording device where the measured values are compared with the target values from the image input device for the printing plates. Further data for the inkjet printing system can be generated by the recorder to correct the printing plate (in pattern and height) by printing successive correction layers until the desired profile is obtained. The topography of a generated plate 7 can be accurately controlled and adjusted.
  • the printing system has multilevel capabilities it is possible to use large drops to obtain quickly a profile close to the desired final profile whereafter small drops are used for fine tuning the height and roughness of the plate elements and the surface roughness.
  • Every angle ⁇ of each dot or solid can be controlled by the recording software. Even opposite sides of a dot or solid can be given a different angle ⁇ .
  • the vertical section with a height d provides less image contamination due to ink adhering to the side of the dots while the sloped portion provides support for the dot during printing.
  • Slope characteristics may be determined by the E-modulus and inertia moment of the material determining the formstability of the material.
  • FIG. 1 illustrates the fixed slope angle of the prior art photomechanical printing plates.
  • This differential elasticity can be obtained in several ways : Using photopolymeric inks having different properties, e.g. using different binders, the final wear resistance and elasticity of certain regions or layers can be controlled.
  • differential curing of several layers can also provide different properties of these layers. As mentioned earlier this can be done by changing curing wavelength (UV spectrum), curing time, intensity of the radiation, time interval between applying the layer and curing, ...
  • the elasticity or hardness characteristics can also be influenced by changing the internal structure of recorded layers.
  • Certain characteristics can be obtained by building a layer only using small droplets on top of each other while using only large drops or a mixture of small and large drops will result in clearly different characteristics. Even methods for drop deposition using certain patterns and drop sizes can be constructed resulting in structure having a certain porosity.
  • the obtained structure is a result of the recording method, drop placement, types of inks used and curing parameters.
  • differential characteristics may not only differ in layers above each other, but also in parts of the plate next to each other, eventually depending upon image content.
  • a special type of structure is making use of at least one ink for finally forming the plate, and at least one ink as temporary filler whereon other plate-forming layers can be jetted.
  • the temporary filler forms a sacrificial layer 21 enabling forming of structures which could not be possible using a single ink.
  • Fig. 7 An example of a possible combination is shown in Fig. 7.
  • the filler substance of the sacrificial layer 21 can then later be removed by an appropriate process, e.g. melting, dissolving, etc.. This method can be used for forming special cavities in the final product influencing the plate characteristics.
  • the temporary filler can be used to support small dots during the fabrication of the plate preventing run-out of the fresh jetted dots or collapse of the jetted structures before final curing. After final curing the small dots are more stable and the filler can be removed.
  • a jetted composition giving oleophilic properties to the top layer can be used.
  • An extra layer on top of the image areas or even over the whole plate can of course be applied by any coating method.
  • Another possibility is the application of an overall oleophobic layer over the entire printing plate. Afterwards the oleophobic layer is grazed away from the top layer to reveal the original jetted layers. This results in a ink repellent printing plate having ink accepting image-wise top layer. Such a structure is less vulnerable to smearing i.e. the spreading of ink over areas of the plate and/or substrate where it is not wanted.
  • a final curing step is performed to ensure that the properties of the plate will remain constant.
  • the plate characteristics will normally change in time due to the curing process which will gradually proceed. This is usually avoided by the final curing process.
  • curing radiation with a long wavelength e.g. UVA
  • UVA a separate final curing radiation source 22 illustrated in Figure 2C.
  • a PET layer of 200 ⁇ m is coated with a 1,2mm thick layer of Santoprene TM B100 to form a elastic, resilient base layer.
  • the ink used was an UV curable ink Crystal UFE 7577 TM ink of Sun chemicals having an enhanced elasticity.
  • Subsequent layers are jetted upon each other while preliminary curing is performed in between the jetting of subsequent layers using a "D" bulb radiation.
  • the resulting relief upon the base layer was gradually recorded obtaining a relief difference of a least 0,15mm to avoid fogging of large non-printing areas during printing using the obtained plate.
  • the obtained relief was measured using a Jurca CHR 150 N TM 3-axis measurement system and final correction were made to the plate by jetting extra layers to areas where the measured topography did not yet match the desired relief.
  • a 175 ⁇ m thick support of Polycarbonate is coated with a 1,5mm layer of Poron TM to obtain a elastic base layer.
  • Upon the base layer layers are jetted using a multilevel inkjet recording head having a resolution of 720 dpi with variable drop volume of 3 to 50 pl.
  • a printing relief is created by jetting subsequent layers of an UV curable ink Crystal UFE 7577 TM ink of Sun chemicals forming a layer of about 0,2mm having a relief of at least 0,15 mm. After jetting the relief a supplementary layer of 0,5mm is jetted of the top of the printing portions using an ink
  • Crystal UGE 7537 of Sun chemicals In between the jetting of the layers the jetted drops are preliminary cured using "D" bulb radiation. After finishing the recording printing plate having a relief of more than 0,2mm was obtained. A final curing step was performed using a radiation dose of more than 700 mJ/cm 2 .
  • Another known problem is that small dots next to a solid area or in between two solids tend to disappear in the printed product because, due to lateral cohesion of the printing plate, the compression of the plate at the location of the solids also caused a certain compression of the plate under the nearby dots rendering them less stable during printing.
  • Fig 8 Shown in Fig 8 is a possible method to lower the lateral cohesion of the printing plate is by creating a physical separation between the areas in the printing plate.
  • the foam or elastomeric layer provided on a substrate can be easily cut into small islands using a special calander roll.
  • a drawback in this method could be that the top side of the base layer now has a fine mesh of cuts wherein the ink infiltrate of be drawn by e.g. capillary forces. This can be avoided by calandering a separate foam or base layer and laminating or gluing the base layer to the substrate with the cuts oriented to the substrate to the top side of the base layer has no voids due to the calandering process.
  • Curing of certain photosensitive compositions can be done by using electron beam curing, IR curing.
  • the droplets can be immobilised in another way until final curing is done.
  • the process can be executed on press which provides even a better register control.
  • Cleaning system should be provided on press in order to re-prepare the substrate for recording.
  • Printing can be resumed afterwards with the restored flexographic plate.
  • re-recording can be controlled by measuring the printed product.

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  • Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Toxicology (AREA)
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Claims (23)

  1. Ein durch den nachstehenden Schritt gekennzeichnetes Verfahren zur Herstellung einer Flexodruckplatte gemäß einem Tintenstrahldrucksystem :
    - sequentielles Beschichten eines Substrats mit zumindest zwei bildmäßigen Tintenschichten gemäß dem Tintenstrahldrucksystem, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass jeder Beschichtungsschritt mit einem Fixierschritt, in dem die aufgetragene Schicht vor Auftrag der nächsten Schicht fixiert wird, kombiniert wird.
  2. Verfahren nach Anspruch 1, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass der Fixierschritt ein Inline-Prozess ist.
  3. Verfahren nach Anspruch 1 oder 2, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass für zumindest zwei Schichten unterschiedliche Kombinationen des Beschichtungsschritts und des Fixierschritts angewandt werden.
  4. Verfahren nach Anspruch 3 dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Kombinationen durch Verwendung unterschiedlicher Tintenzusammensetzungen variieren.
  5. Verfahren nach Anspruch 3 oder 4, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Kombinationen durch Anwendung unterschiedlicher Fixierschritte variieren.
  6. Verfahren nach einem der vorstehenden Ansprüche, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Tinte strahlungshärtbar ist und das Fixieren durch Belichtung der Tintenschichten mit Härtungsstrahlung gemäß vorgegebenen Härtungsparametern erfolgt.
  7. Verfahren nach Anspruch 6, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Härtungsstrahlung Ultraviolettstrahlung ist.
  8. Verfahren nach Anspruch 7, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Ultraviolettstrahlung von einer UV-Kaltlichtquelle herrührt.
  9. Verfahren nach Anspruch 6, 7 oder 8, falls abhängig von Anspruch 5, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Härtungsparameter der Belichtung mit Härtungsstrahlung während des Fixierschritts in Belichtungszeit, Strahlungsintensität oder Wellenlänge variieren.
  10. Verfahren nach Anspruch 6 bis 9, das ferner einen Schritt von Endhärtung mit UVA-Strahlung umfasst.
  11. Verfahren nach einem der vorstehenden Ansprüche, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass das Substrat vor dem Beschichtungsschritt abgekühlt wird.
  12. Verfahren nach einem der vorstehenden Ansprüche, das ferner den Schritt umfasst, in dem die Höhe von zumindest einer bildmäßig aufgetragenen Schicht gemessen wird und dabei Messdaten erzeugt werden.
  13. Verfahren nach Anspruch 12, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Messdaten der bildmäßigen Schicht in eine Rückkopplungsschleife eingeführt werden, um den Bildinhalt der folgenden aufzutragenden Schichten anzupassen.
  14. Verfahren zum Regenerieren einer Druckplatte unter Anwendung eines Verfahrens nach Anspruch 12 oder 13.
  15. Verfahren nach Anspruch 14, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Regenerierung "on press", d.h. auf der Presse, erfolgt.
  16. Verfahren nach einem der vorstehenden Ansprüche, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass nacheinander aufgetragene Schichten das Relief der Flexodruckplatte bilden und die Reliefhöhe durch den Bildinhalt bedingt wird.
  17. Verfahren nach einem der vorstehenden Ansprüche, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass nacheinander aufgetragene Schichten das Relief der Flexodruckplatte bilden und die Neigungen des Reliefs durch Steuerung des Bildinhalts der nacheinander aufgetragenen bildmäßigen Schichten gesteuert werden.
  18. Verfahren nach einem der Ansprüche 3 bis 17, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass sich zumindest zwei nacheinander aufgetragene Schichten nicht überlappen und dadurch unterschiedliche Bereiche der Platte unterschiedliche Eigenschaften aufweisen.
  19. Verfahren nach einem der vorstehenden Ansprüche, das ferner den Schritt der Beschichtung aller aufgetragenen bildmäßigen Schichten mit einer Schutzschicht umfasst.
  20. Verfahren nach Anspruch 19, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Schutzschicht eine oleophobe Schicht ist und das Verfahren ferner den Schritt der bildmäßigen Entfernung der Deckschicht der Druckplatte umfasst.
  21. Verfahren nach einem der vorstehenden Ansprüche, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass das Substrat einen Träger und eine elastomere Grundierschicht umfasst.
  22. Verfahren nach Anspruch 21, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die elastomere Grundierschicht eine Säulenstruktur aufweist.
  23. Verfahren nach einem der vorstehenden Ansprüche, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass das Tintenstrahldrucksystem ein mehrstufiges Tintenstrahldrucksystem ist, d.h. zur Erzeugung mehrerer Tropfenvolumen befähigt ist.
EP02102717A 2002-12-11 2002-12-11 Bereitung von Flexodruckplatten mittels Tintenstrahlaufzeichnung Expired - Fee Related EP1428666B1 (de)

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EP02102717A EP1428666B1 (de) 2002-12-11 2002-12-11 Bereitung von Flexodruckplatten mittels Tintenstrahlaufzeichnung
DE60219807T DE60219807T2 (de) 2002-12-11 2002-12-11 Bereitung von Flexodruckplatten mittels Tintenstrahlaufzeichnung
JP2003410730A JP2004188983A (ja) 2002-12-11 2003-12-09 インキジェット記録を用いるフレキソ印刷版の製造
US10/732,072 US7875321B2 (en) 2002-12-11 2003-12-10 Preparation of flexographic printing plates using ink jet recording

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