METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL PROCESSING A PHOTOSENSITIVE ELEMENT

摘要

A method and apparatus for thermal processing a photosensitive element includes heating a composition layer on a flexible substrate to a melt temperature of an unirradiated area of the composition layer and maintaining the flexible substrate at a temperature below the melt temperature while pressing a heated absorbent layer against the heated composition layer, and repeating these steps for multiple cycles. A further embodiment of the method includes a step of cooling the flexible substrate and layer laminate on each cycle to maintain the flexible substrate at the desired temperature below that of the heated composition layer.