Interaction between Surface of a Master Cylinder and Ink Jet Imaging for Computer-to-Press Applications

Abstract

In production printing normally a master form, e. g. a printing plate, is used in the print process to manufacture cheap copies. To make this plate by computer-to-plate, some applications are known which use ink jet technologies for imagin. Future developments in computer-to-press solutions will eliminate physical plate changes from the process, using insteed a cylinder as a master, which will be fixed in the printing press and which could be imaged directly in the press. After the print job, the master image on this cylinder must be erased for the next job.In this paper some investigations are presented which illustrate the interaction between the ink, the cylinder surface and the conditions of erasing and their impact in print quality and run length of the printed jobs.