A study of the processing of flexographic solid-sheet photopolymer printing plates

This paper considers various aspects of photopolymer plate processing procedures that are of importance to the flexographic printing process from the perspective of the wish to produce high quality, fine images on a variety of substrates. It is clear that great strides have been made in print quality, definition and performance through the use of photopolymer plates that have been created using tightly controlled operations. In this presentation, some of the original research and development work, that has been undertaken by the authors, is underpinned by a consideration of the many factors that govern the improvements that have been made to flexographic photopolymer plate making, in recent times. Consideration is given to the photopolymer plate making procedures, the characterisation of the resultant photopolymer plates and the factors that govern the performance of these photopolymer plates.