| 摘要 |
The invention relates to the provision of plates for use in printing processes and to the coating of at least one of the surfaces of the same to reduce the wear and improve the clarity of the etched image on said surface and thereby improve the printing obtained. There is provided a plate 25 having a coating 30, 32, 34, 36 applied by a physical vapour deposition (PVD) coating process to at least one face 26 thereof which includes an etched image (28, Fig.1). The coating includes a metal nitride layer. Preferably the metal nitride layer is chromium nitride, nickel nitride or a nitride of a nickel chromium alloy. There is also provided a coating including an outer surface of a metal nitride where the metal nitride has a structure with a highly oriented basal plane arrangement. There is further provided a method of coating a surface of a printing plate using a sputtering process. |
