JPS61175641A - Treatment of photosensitive printing plate and its device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent faulty printing plats from being produced without depending on the experiences of engraving engineer by managing an automatical device for further processing the photosensitive printing plate after development in accordance with the data obtained by detecting the life of the processing soln. as physicochemical performance. CONSTITUTION:The processing baths 2, 3 are filled with processing soln. 5 (rinse water) and a processing soln. 6, respectively, and the soln. 6 is circulated with a circulating pump 15. The bath 3 is provided with a detector 7 for the physicochemical performance of the soln. 6, and the result is indicated with the display device 4. As the detector 7, a light transmittance meter, a spectral photometer, a hydrometer, a colorimeter, an electric conductivity meter, an electromagnetic concentration meter, a potentiometer, etc., are enumerated, and above all, the conductivity meter, the concentration meter, and the potentiometer are preferable, because they are superior as the liquid component meter in direct relation to the printing plate performance of the processing soln., and as the potentiometer, a pH meter is especially preferable, because it is high in ability for detecting the performance of the processing soln.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to the processing of photosensitive printing plates, and in particular, when processing photosensitive printing plates after a development step, the present invention relates to processing of photosensitive printing plates, in which the performance of the printing plate after processing exceeds a certain level. The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for processing the invention so as to preserve the properties thereof.

(Prior art) Photosensitive printing plates are broadly classified into letterpress, lithographic, intaglio, stencil, etc., and are used in a variety of ways. Among them, photosensitive planographic printing plates are made of photosensitive resin on a support because of the ease of plate-making work. In addition to those coated with a photosensitive liquid such as, those using silver halide, and those using electrophotographic engraving are widely known. Among these, photosensitive resin is coated on the most widely used support because of its favorable performance as a printing plate. In order to maintain and improve properties such as hydrophilicity in non-image areas and ink receptivity in image areas, after both positive and negative development, water washing treatment, plate surface protection treatment, surfactant solution treatment, etc. are applied. Ru.

These techniques are described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-158, respectively.
No. 643, JP-A No. 59-57242, JP-A No. 59-59
It is described in JP-A-58431 and the like. Additionally, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 52-6205 discloses a treatment to prevent staining of non-image areas during printing before rounding heating to increase printing durability of the printing plate.

Conventionally, such processing has been carried out in a so-called batch operation, in which the processing liquid is filled into a storage tank and used for refilling, whether it is applied manually to the printing plates or by automatic processing equipment. Ta. In such batch operations, as the number of printing plates to be processed increases, the processing liquid is subject to contamination due to processing liquid from previous processes that adhere to the printing plates and brought in, changes due to gases in the air, evaporation into the air, etc. (referred to as processing solution fatigue)'l! -I am receiving it. Fatigue of processing liquid is explained in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5
As in the method described in Japanese Patent Application No. 9-57242 and Japanese Patent Application No. 58-229830, in which washing water is used repeatedly after development, or in the case where washing with water is not performed at all after development,
This is particularly noticeable when the processing solution used in the process preceding the processing solution is not necessarily pure water. Processing liquid fatigue exceeds the allowable limit to some extent 1 Generally, this is called the life of the processing liquid, and printing plates treated with a processing liquid that exceeds this life may suffer from decreased shelf life and printing ink build-up in the image area. Due to defects and/or a decrease in the insensitivity of the non-image area, printing smudges occur and the performance of the printing plate deteriorates. Conventionally, before such a situation occurs, the processing liquid was updated based on a rough guideline, such as adding up the processing period, the number of printing plates, etc., or the experience of an experienced plate-making engineer. However, [7] In recent years, the demand for these printing plates has increased rapidly, resulting in an increase in processing volume, frequent updating of processing solutions, increased workload, and burdensome work for plate-making engineers, which has led to improvements in plate-making work efficiency. improvement is strongly desired. Furthermore, inappropriate updating timing may result in a defective printing plate, and the printing plate that took a lot of work to create may be wasted, so the method of determining when to update the processing liquid often relies on intuition. A drastic improvement is desired.

(Objective of the invention) The first object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for quantitatively and automatically detecting and processing the performance of a processing solution after development processing, without relying on experience or the like. .

A second object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for processing a printing plate so as to prevent the deterioration of printing plate performance and waste of the printing plate, and maintain the performance of the printing plate above a certain level.

A third object of the present invention is to provide a processing method and its entire apparatus that can improve the efficiency of printing plate making operations.

(Structure of the Invention) As a result of intensive research in order to achieve the above object, the inventor has discovered that, after developing a photosensitive printing plate, when processing it in an automatic processing device, the activity of the processing solution is determined by physical chemistry. By detecting the performance with a detector and controlling the activity of the processing solution using the signal, there is also a detector that detects the physicochemical performance of the processing solution in an automatic processing device that further processes the photosensitive printing plate after development. The inventors have discovered that the above object can be achieved by providing the following, and have arrived at the present invention.

Inventively, after the photosensitive printing plate is developed, at least one
A method and apparatus for processing a photosensitive printing plate, characterized in that in automatic processing using one processing solution, at least one physicochemical property of the processing solution is used by a detector and managed by a detected signal. be. The present invention further provides a method and apparatus for processing a photosensitive printing plate, characterized in that the present invention further includes a feed thread for replenishing a replenisher by receiving a signal detected by the detector as an input.

In addition, in the present invention, "physicochemical performance" refers to physics,
Performance that can be expressed chemically or physicochemically.

In addition, the processing solution to be managed and its physical and chemical performance vary depending on letterpress, intaglio, stencil, and lithographic printing, as well as photosensitive layers, etc., and also due to differences in processing steps and previous steps of the processing solution of interest. There are various variations, and they are not necessarily the same.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on the accompanying drawings.

1 to 3 are schematic side sectional views showing an example of an automatic processing apparatus according to the present invention.

In Fig. 1, 1 is a developer tank of the development processing section, 2 and 3
is the processing liquid tank in the processing section after development. Processing liquid tanks 2 and 3
are filled with a treatment liquid 5 (washing water) and a treatment liquid 6, respectively, and the treatment liquid 6 is circulated by a circulation pump 15. The treatment liquid tank 3 is equipped with all the detectors 7, which detect the physical and chemical performance of the treatment liquid 6 and display the signals on the display device 4.

In FIG. 2, as in FIG. 1, numeral 1 indicates a developer tank in the development processing section, and 3 indicates a processing solution tank in the processing section after development. The processing liquid tank 3 is filled with a processing liquid 6, and this processing liquid 6 is circulated by a circulation pump 15. The processing liquid tank 3 is equipped with a detector 7 that detects the physicochemical performance of the processing liquid 6 and sends the signal to the t-controller 10. The controller 10 outputs an alarm when the signal deviates from a preset value. 13 is an alarm.

In FIG. 3, as in FIG. 1, 1 is a developing solution tank, and 2 and 3 are processing solution tanks in a processing section after development. The processing liquid tanks 2 and 3 are filled with processing liquids 5 and 6, respectively, and are further circulated by respective circulation pumps 14 and 15. The processing liquid tank 2 is equipped with a detector 17t-, which detects the physicochemical performance of the processing liquid 5 and sends the signal to the controller 10. When the signal deviates from a preset value, the controller 10 opens the drain hook 19 and outputs an output to drain the processing liquid 5 into the drain tank.

Furthermore, liquid level switches 17 and 18 are arranged at the bottom and top of the processing liquid tank 2, and when the processing liquid has been discharged, a new processing liquid 24 is filled by the processing liquid volume controller 16 using a valve or pump 21. do. A detector 8 is installed in the processing liquid tank 3.
and 9, each of which detects a different type of physicochemical performance of the processing liquid 6, and sends the signal to controllers 11 and 12, respectively. The controllers 11 and 12 replenish the replenishing fluids 5 and 26, respectively, when the signal deviates from a preset value.

Detector for detecting the physicochemical performance 7.8. Examples of 9 include a transmittance meter, a spectrophotometer, a hydrometer, a colorimeter, a conductivity meter, an electromagnetic densitometer, and a potentiometer. Among them, a conductivity meter, an electromagnetic densitometer, and a potentiometer are preferable because they are excellent liquid component meters that directly affect the printing plate performance of the processing solution.As a potentiometer, a pH meter is more preferable because it has a high detection power for processing solution performance. used. A pH meter is composed of an indicator electrode and a reference electrode, and examples of the indicator electrode include a glass electrode and an antimony electrode.

Antimony electrodes are preferred because they are vertical, but glass electrodes are more preferred because they enable highly accurate measurements. The glass electrode has an internal electrode inside the main body, and the internal electrode is preferably a calomel electrode or a silver chloride electrode, but a silver chloride electrode is more preferable because of its small temperature hysteresis. As the reference electrode, a standard hydrogen electrode, a calomel electrode, a thallium chloride electrode, a silver chloride electrode, a solid reference electrode, etc. are used.

These calomel electrodes, thallium chloride electrodes, silver chloride electrodes, and solid reference electrodes are preferred because they are easy to use.
Among these, calomel electrodes, silver chloride electrodes, and solid reference electrodes are more preferred because they are easily available and allow safe measurements. Silver chloride electrodes are more preferable as chemical substances used in electrodes because they are safe for the human body, and silver chloride electrodes are more preferable because they are safe for the human body.
A silver nine chloride solid reference electrode using a gel with the best saturation is most preferably used because it is easy to maintain and inspect.

In addition to these electrodes, it is preferable to further use a temperature compensation electrode for correcting electromotive force due to temperature changes of the electrodes.

Translucent needles are suitable when the photoconductor dissolved in the developer contains a colored substance, or when the previous processing solution contains a light-absorbing substance, and the processing method involves substantial contamination with the processing solution. used for.

The physicochemical performance detected by the detector is displayed as a simple level or as a numerical value, and the processing liquid is managed by connecting it to an alarm that generates light or sound.

In the present invention, a method and apparatus having a feedback loop for replenishing the replenisher using the signal detected by the detector as input is most preferable in order to increase the efficiency of platemaking work. A controller that generates an electromotive force when disconnected, and a solenoid valve that is activated by this.
Method using valves such as electric valves, pumps, etc. (21X in Figure 3)
22 and 23). Alternatively, a method may be used in which a processing liquid to be used as a reference is prepared instead of a set value given in advance, and a comparison is made with this using a t-controller.

The controller 10 and the processing liquid amount controller 16 may be of a two-position type, a three-position type, a proportional position type, an on-off pulse type, an on/off rotation type, a current output type, or the like. Various types of pumps are used, such as diaphragm pumps, plunger pumps, bellows pumps, electromagnetic metering pumps, tube pumps, and magnet pumps. Controllers 10, 11 and 12
The processing liquid volume controller 16 is electrically connected to the detector and generates electromagnetic waves such as radio waves and light, and the outputs thereof drive the valves, pumps, etc., and replenish the replenishing liquid.

The method and apparatus according to the present invention can detect and manage physicochemical performance when the immediately preceding treatment of the treatment liquid is other than sensitive cleaning water.
This method is particularly effective because contamination from the immediately preceding processing solution progresses rapidly. Cleanse yourself here.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

In FIG. 1, a photosensitive printing plate is imagewise exposed and developed in a developer tank 1. In FIG. The developed printing plate is treated with a treatment liquid 5 and further treated with a treatment liquid 6.

As the processing continues, the processing liquid 6 becomes fatigued, which is detected by the detector 7 and the signal thereof is displayed on the display device 4. The plate-making engineer uses this indicator to update the processing liquid 6 if the processing liquid has exceeded its service life.

In FIG. 2, the photosensitive printing plate is developed in a developing tank 1 and then treated with a processing liquid 6. In FIG. The physicochemical performance of the processing liquid is detected by a detector 7, and when the signal is an electromotive force that is outside the set value, the controller outputs it to an alarm, informing that the processing liquid has exceeded its lifespan.

In FIG. 3, the photosensitive printing plate is developed with a developer in a developer tank 1, and after death is further processed with two types of processing solutions 5 and 6 in sequence.

The detector 7 in the treatment tank 2 detects the physicochemical performance of the treatment liquid 5, and the signal is sent to the controller 10. When the signal deviates from a preset value, it is output from the controller IO to the discharge cock, and the treated liquid 5 is discharged into the waste liquid tank. When the discharge is completed, the liquid level switch 17 is activated, the discharge hook 19 is closed, and a new processing liquid is filled. The processing liquid 6 is detected by two detectors 8 and 9 for different types of physical and chemical performance, and the respective signals are transmitted to the controllers 11 and 12. Outputs are made to replenish the valves or pumps ρ and 26 with different replenisher fluids 5 and 26, respectively. Replenishment is stopped when the physicochemical performance of the treatment liquid 6 falls within the set value.

(Example) Example 1 Automatic developing apparatus for photosensitive planographic printing plates PSA having the structure shown in FIG. 1 except that the display FE station 4 and the detector 7 are not provided.
86OA (manufactured by Konishiroku Photo Industry Co., Ltd.) developer tank 1 is filled with 15 ml of specified diluted Sakura PS version developer SDR-1 (manufactured by the same company), and processing tank 2 is filled with 151 ml of tap water. ,
Processing tank 3 is filled with designated diluted solution 6I of 228 version rinse solution 5RW-1 (manufactured by the same company)! filled with.

A glass electrode (silver chloride inner electrode), a silver chloride comparison electrode, and a temperature compensation electrode were attached to the processing tank 3, and each lead wire was connected to a pH meter to display the pH of the processing solution 6.

With this automatic processing device, 0.5 to o, s? FL″'s Saji 2
When we continued to process a large number of 28th edition SLP' sheets, the value displayed on the pH meter became 7.00 (this set value was determined experimentally in advance) when the number of sheets exceeded approximately ω. Therefore, this treatment liquid 6 was updated.

Example 2 Processing was carried out in the same manner as in Example 1, except that the tap water in the processing tank 2 was discharged, no treatment with tap water was performed, and the same treatment with a rinsing liquid as described above was performed after the development treatment. however,
A controller was connected to the pI (meter), and a bell was connected to the output side of the controller so that it would output when the pH exceeded 7.00.

As a result of processing the same photosensitive printing plates as in Example 1, all the printing plates obtained before the bell rang were beautiful printing plates with good printing ink receptivity and no stains in the non-image areas.

Example 3 A designated diluted solution 15 of Zaku 228 version developer solution SDR-1 (manufactured by Konishiroku Photo Industry Co., Ltd.) was placed in the developer tank 1 of an automatic processing device having the structure shown in FIG. I prepared it, treated the PS plate metal part, and replenished the Zaku 228 edition replenisher (manufactured by Konishiroku Photo Industry Co., Ltd.). The treatment liquid tank 2 and the replenisher δ were each filled with 187 liters of tap water.

A transparent + positioning needle is attached to the detector 7, and the controller 10 is 10U.
The discharge cock I was set to open when the optical path length became less than 10% transmittance (wavelength 600 nm).

The treatment liquid tank 3 is filled with a 2-fold diluted solution t-6J of Saji 228 version gum liquid SGW-1 (manufactured by the same company), and a hydrometer is attached to the detector 8. is 1.0
The controller 11 was provided so that when the temperature became 40 or less, the bellows pump 23 was activated to replenish the 1.5 times diluted gum solution SGW-1. The detector 9 has pH [extreme GST
-338 (manufactured by Toa Denpa Kogyo Co., Ltd.), and connect this lead wire to the indicating controller HDC-1 (manufactured by the same company, 2-position type).
When the pH exceeds 7.00, the solenoid valve opens 23ft.
The replenisher supplemented the 0.5M phosphoric acid aqueous solution.

When printing plates obtained by processing various sizes of Saji 228 edition SMP C Konishiroku Photo Industry Co., Ltd. exhibition) on this automatic processing device, all plates had good ink receptivity in the image area. The non-image area was free of stains.

(Effects of the Invention) This invention detects and manages the lifespan of the processing solution as a physicochemical performance when processing the photosensitive printing plate after development using an automatic device. It is possible to continuously obtain printing plates with good printing performance without relying on the above, and it is possible to eliminate the waste of producing defective printing plates. Furthermore, by eliminating individual differences such as variations between plate-making engineers in deciding when to update the processing solution, and by conducting quantified management, drastic improvements in plate-making processes can be made. The efficiency of plate-making work is improved because skilled plate-making engineers are no longer required to extend the life of the processing liquid.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIGS. 1, 2, and 3 are schematic side sectional views showing an example of an apparatus for carrying out the present invention. 1... Developer tank 2.3... Processing solution tank 4119 display device after development 5.6... Processing solution 7, 8.9... Detector 10.11.1
2...Controller 13...Alarm 14.15
...Circulation pump 16...Controller for processing liquid 17.
18...Liquid level switch 19...Drain cock
Area...Waste liquid tank 21.22.23...Valve or pump 24.25.26...Replenishment liquid Applicant: Konishiroku Photo Industry Co., Ltd. Figure 1 Figure 3

Claims (10)

[Claims] (1) Processing of photosensitive printing plates characterized in that when the photosensitive printing plate is further processed in an automatic processing device after development, the physicochemical performance of the processing solution is detected by a detector and managed based on the detected signal. Method. (2) The processing method according to claim 1, wherein the detector is a translucent meter, a spectrophotometer, a colorimeter, a hydrometer, a conductivity meter, an electromagnetic densitometer, or a potentiometer. . (3) The processing method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the detected signal is displayed at least as a numerical value or level. (4) The processing method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the managing method includes an alarm based on the detected signal. (5) The processing method according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a feedback loop that replenishes the replenisher by using the detected signal as input. (6) An automatic processing device equipped with a detector that detects the physicochemical performance of a processing solution for further processing the photosensitive printing plate after development. (7) Automatic processing according to claim 6, characterized in that the detector is a translucent meter, a spectrophotometer, a colorimeter, a hydrometer, a conductivity meter, an electromagnetic densitometer, or a potentiometer. Device. (8) Claim 6, characterized by comprising a device that displays the signal detected by the detector in numerical values or levels.
The automatic processing device according to item 7 or item 7. (9) The automatic processing device according to claim 6 or 7, further comprising an alarm that outputs an alarm when the signal detected by the detector deviates from a set value. (10) The automatic processing device according to claim 6 or 7, further comprising a feedback loop that works in conjunction with the signal detected by the detector and replenishes the replenisher when the signal deviates from a set value.