The printing plate is an important element in printing technology and is mainly used in flat printing such as offset printing. It contains printing and non-printing areas and transfers the printing information to the printing material. This is usually done indirectly, i.e. via a rubber blanket cylinder. The print motif is the correct way round on the printing plate, reversed on the rubber blanket, and the correct way round again on the paper.
Modern printing plates are usually made of anodised aluminium with a light-sensitive coating. This coating is directly exposed to a laser in a process known as computer-to-plate (CTP). The image information from digital data is precisely transferred to the plate. Films and analogue copying processes are now almost obsolete; films are only used for screen printing (e.g. by filmbelichtung24.de – only available in German). After exposure, the plate is either chemically developed or, in process-free systems, prepared directly for printing.
The key properties of a printing plate are good ink acceptance, high dimensional stability and register accuracy. It must also offer sufficient stability to ensure a consistently good print image, even with high print runs. Its service life depends not only on the material, but also on the dampening solution used, the printing inks and the machine control.
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