Characterization of Surface Energies of Waterless Plates

Contact angle measurements of liquid drops were carried out on image and non-image areas of a positive Toray waterless printing plate using an image analysis setup. Seven liquids were used: water, methylene iodide, formamide, ?-bromonaphthalene, nonane, hexadecane and glycerol. From the values obtained, surface energies were calculated using different approaches (namely those developed by Fowkes, Owens-Wendt, Zisman, and Van Oss) and critically compared.