Quality assessment of offset thermosensitive printing plates

This article discusses the technological possibilities of assessing the quality of offset thermosensitive printing plates by studying the influence of the structural and physical properties of their construction layers, as well as the parameters of digital computer-to-plate recording on the quality of formation and reproduction of image elements. The article presents an original conceptual model for determining the integral quality indicators of printing plates, taking into account their structural and physical properties, a set of modern methods for evaluating the quality of offset printing forms is presented, such as evaluating the surface morphology of polymer registering layers and a substrate – a basis of the printing form; assessment of the adhesion of polymer layers of offset printing plates to the substrate surface, taking into account the influence of image recording parameters; investigation of the influence of the chemical state of the registering layers of offset plates on the adhesion of printing elements to inks; assessment of the influence of the processes of thermal action of laser radiation and the temperature gradient on the surface structure of the polymer layer of a thermosensitive plate and the accuracy of the formation of the quality of discrete image elements on printing plates. These researches are aimed at determining the relationship between the structural and physicochemical properties of offset thermosensitive plates and integral indicators of the reproduction quality of raster and line image elements in a digital recording system.