Vickers, Inc.

E.i. Dupont De Nemours and Company

Dupont (uk) Limited

Du Pont-howson Limited

Terence Etherington

Rodney M Potts

Victor Kolodziejczyk

Jianrong Ren

John R Wade

Keith M Fletcher

A radiation sensitive material suitable for the production of radiation sensitive plates for lithographic printing plate manufacture comprises a polymer having appendent azide-substituted aromatic ester groups and sulphonyl urethane groups. The radiation sensitive compound is produced by a process in which some hydroxyl and/or epoxide groups of a polymer are reacted with an azide substituted carboxylic acid or ester forming derivative thereof, and some hydroxyl groups are reacted with a sulphonyl isocyanate.

Radiation-sensitive polymers having sulfonyl urthane side chains and

A radiation-sensitive compound, which comprises a polymer including a plurality of azide-substituted aromatic ester groups and a plurality of carboxylic or sulphonic acid groups capable of imparting to the compound solubility in aqueous or alkaline medium. After image-wise exposure, the compound can be developed using an aqueous or alkaline developer. The compound is useful in the production of radiation sensitive plates for the manufacture of lithographic printing plates which can be baked to improve printing life.

Bakeable aqueous photopolymers and their use in printing plates

A polymeric compound is derived from a polyhydric material and has pendant sulphonate groups of the general formula ##STR1## and pendant alkyl urethane groups of the formula ##STR2## where X is an aliphatic, aromatic, carboxylic or heterocyclic group; Y is hydrogen, halogen or an alkyl, aryl, alkoxy, aryloxy or aralkyl group, CO.sub.2.sup.- Z.sup.+, CO.sub.2 R or SO.sub.3.sup.- Z.sup.+ ; Z.sup.+ is a cationic counter ion and R is hydrogen alkyl, alkylene, aryl or aralkyl group.

Polymeric compounds having urethane and sulfonate groups

A printing plate precursor comprises a substrate coated with a radiation sensitive composition comprising a photoinitiator and a photopolymerizable urethane acrylate or methacrylate. The urethane acrylate or methacrylate is produced by partial acrylation or methacrylation of a tetrafunctional polyol and the remaining hydroxy groups of the polyol are reacted with a di or polyisocyanate.

Printing plate precursors

Polymeric compounds comprise groups of the formula ##STR1## attached to carbon atoms of a polymer containing hydroxyl and optionally epoxide groups wherein X is ##STR2## The compounds are produced by reacting a starting polymer, which contains hydroxy groups and optionally epoxide groups with a reagent containing a cyclic anhydride group and a further functional group capable of reacting with the hydroxyl (and/or epoxide) groups preferentially to the anhydride group. The compounds are useful as bakeable support resins for radiation sensitive compounds in the production of printing plates.

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Leeds, United Kingdom

Terence Etherington