Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company

Dupont Operations Worldwide, Inc.

Kurt F Feil

John A Martens

Sudershan K Bhateja

John A Peterson

Gary A Staus

Craig D Lien

Gary D VanDerWerff

The present invention is a flexographic printing plate having a very low degree of thermal distortion during development. This flexographic printing plate comprises a dimensionally stable substrate and an image bearing relief layer, wherein the thermal distortion of the flexographic printing plate in both the machine and the transverse directions is less than 0.02% when the plate is developed at temperatures in the range from about 100&deg; C. to about 180&deg; C.

Dimensionally stable flexographic printing plates

A device for forming a flexographic printing plate is disclosed. A preformed, imagewise irradiated sheet of film is heat treated by the device of the present invention to remove unwanted portions of a top layer, leaving radiation hardened relief images on the plate. The device has a heating means for supplying heat to said film, a first delivery means for delivering a sheet of absorbent material to a surface of the film, a second delivery means for supplying film to the heating means, pressure means for causing liquified material to be absorbed onto an absorbent material, and a separation means for separating the absorbent material from the film.

Device for forming flexographic printing plate

Growing community of inventors

Lake Elmo, MN, United States of America

Kurt F Feil