Printing Plates
A printing system has four independent components: a press, an image carrier, ink and paper or other substrates to carry a message. The image carrier is the printing plate in traditional printing processes. The processes in which photopolymer plates are used to carry ink and transfer it to the substrate are lithography, flexography, letterpress and gravure.
Although most printing plates are sold as solid plates, liquid photopolymers are also available to make flexographic and letterpress printing plates.
Lithographic plates are planographic plates which are also known as offset plates. Photopolymer-based litho plates mainly compete with diazo plates.
In letterpress plates, the face of image elements is raised above open areas. Here photopolymer plates have replaced stereotypes and metal plates. On dry offset plates, also called letterset plates, an intermediate blanket cylinder is used to transfer the image to the substrate.
Flexographic plates are similar to letterpress plates except the image career is elastomeric. Photopolymers have replaced the bulk of rubber-based flexo plates. Below is the list of various Manufacturers:
LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES
- Agfa Graphics
- Eastman Kodak Co.
- Fujifilm Global
- Lucky HuaGuang Graphics, China
- Southern Lithoplate
- TechNova Imaging Systems, India
FLEXOGRAPHIC AND LETTERPRESS SOLID PLATES
- Asahi Photoproducts, Japan
- DuPont
- Eastman Kodak Co.
- Flint Group
- Fujifilm Global
- MacDermid
- Sumei Chemical, Taiwan
- Toray, Japan
- Toyobo Co., Japan
LIQUID PHOTOPOLYMERS
- Anderson & Vreeland
- Asahi Photoproducts, Japan
- Chemence
- Exell 2002, Italy
- Kivi Markings, India
- MacDermid Graphic Solutions
- Photocentric Ltd., U.K.
- Thermoflan SA, France
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