Red-Hot and Violet. Photopolymer Systems at Your Service

Photospeed, characteristic curves, exposure latitude, and dot reproduction of violet photopolymer (V-PP), infrared photopolymer (IR-PP) and thermal preheat plates (IR-TP) have been studied using a single beam violet plate setter and two types of infrared plate setters differing in beam geometry. It could be demonstrated that the detail reproduction capability of the system is affected by the shape of the characteristic curves of the systems and exposure beam shape as well. IR-PP and IR-TP plates show a better resolution compared to V-PP and setters with profiled beams gave better results than setters having a Gaussian beam. It could be demonstrated that the exposure latitude depends on both plate and setter parameters. V-PP plates are limited to 200 lpi screens whereas IR-PP and IR-TP allows 10 and 20 mm FM screens.