Engraving thermoplastic printing plates - and simultaneously cooling them

摘要

A sheet of thermoplastic printing plate material is heated until it is softened and then engraved by pressure from a plate or cylinder and simultaneously cooled until it is dimensionally stable. The process yields printing plates with stable images accurate to several 1/100 ths of a mm. Opt. the printing plate may be bonded to a backing sheet during the impression and cooling stages.