Unconventional Printing Plate Exposed by IR (830 NM) Laser Diodes

The trend toward direct-to-plate technology has been seen to be a viable alternative to contact exposure with film. What only a few years ago was seen as nothing more than a curiosity has become a realistic approach to an improved printing process. Over the past several years the required technologies of electronic hardware, data manipulation, software, imagesetters and plates are in the position to offer to a printer the means to go from computer to plate. Two general technologies are seen as the present choices for plates: 1.) photopolymer, and 2.) silver. Both are effective in providing high speed systems responding in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This paper describes the results of investigations aimed at realizing an alternative technology leading to a printing plate useful for a direct-to-plate application, but imaged in response to heat indirectly obtained from an infrared energy source. The status of direct imaging using a laser diode operating at 830 nm and the associated plate will be reviewed.