Two methods for direct plate making

Previous flexo plates were to be plated on the platen cylinder after platemaking before they could be printed. In foreign countries, there is now a more advanced flexo-direct platemaking technology, which can be directly plated on the sleeve, and then the sleeve plate can be printed on the platen cylinder, and the work efficiency is higher. This technology is sleeve direct plate making technology. Sleeve direct plate making method can be divided into laser engraving and laser ablation two plate making methods.

1. Laser engraving sleeve technology has been used in foreign countries to directly engrave the flexible version of the method. In this way, the sleeve can function both as a normal sleeve and as a printing plate. The pages produced by the prepress system can be output directly from the computer to the sleeve, eliminating the need for operations such as exposure, rinsing, curing, and printing, and the work efficiency is greatly improved. For example, PLOYWEST's Laser Engraving Sleeve Technology in Germany makes it possible to produce a plate combining the field with a hierarchical mesh, resulting in super-fine graphics.

2. Laser ablation sleeve technology, in the packaging of printed products, often encounter some pattern design full version of the same, but also free to cut down. The joints are not visible at the ends. Although it can be done on a roll printing machine, if you use a sheet of paper for printing, it is difficult to make joints invisible. The sleeve technology can solve this problem very well because on the sleeve type plate, CTP technology can be directly used for plate making and the problem can be solved easily. The plate making procedure is as follows:

1 Apply a layer of hot melt adhesive on an air-cored nickel or other metal roll. After drying, place the trimmed photosensitive resin on the metal roller and put it together. Vacuum from the core of the metal roll (the surface of the roll has many small pores), so that the photosensitive plate close to the surface of the metal roller. Then placed in an oven and warmed, the plate was fused together with the adhesive layer on the surface of the metal roll and then taken out and cooled.

2 Place the cooled version of the first stage onto the peripheral grinder. According to the size requirements of the print, grind the outer diameter of the sleeve to a certain diameter (detected with a laser). The layout is naturally smooth. After wiping it clean, apply a black coating to the sleeve plate surface. Let it dry and set aside.

3 Digital laser scanning of the sleeve version prepared in the second step causes the black coating on the sleeve plate to be thermally etched by the laser and then exposed to UV light as usual.

4 Place the exposed stencil plate in the corrosive tank for flushing, then remove and blow dry.