Liquid Photopolymer machine?
I’ve come across an older and in good condition photopolymer machine that makes plates from negatives, but uses liquid polymer instead of the plates. Has anyone else heard of this and know anything about it? I’d like to get it running and make a bunch of plates (having my own photopolymer machine? yippee!!!). I found liquid photopolymer resin suppliers, but not much on how to actually make a plate. Has anyone any experience with this type of plate making?
Jenny73
There is information online about how to go about this. There are some problems though. This is older technology (that was around long before the current interest in the photopolymer process for studio-letterpress), consequently you might have to use chemicals to washout the plates (as opposed to water) and you might have to back expose the plates (sheet photopolymer comes already back exposed). There are also surfacing issues. Most of this kind of stuff is used for making rubber stamps and signage.
Don’t mean to burst your bubble but I’d pass on this.
Gerald
http://BielerPress.blogspot.com
jenny73
I have made sheet photopolymer plates with a liquid photopolymer machine. I find using a vacuum frame and a proper light source a little more accurate.
As Gerald suggests I would pass on the liquid photpolymer, I have already tried it and it is not worth the trouble.
You can make a contact frame using the glass chase that came with your platemaker and a small sheet of 1/4” foam rubber. Place the film then the plate on the glass. Then the foam rubber and clamp the chase together. That should provide a fairly good contact between the plate and the film. The poly based plate material will work better than steel because it is more flexible.
Sumner
I also tried using liquid polymer - after the pain and paitience of figuring it out by pouring it to avoid air bubbles and getting the exposure right for both sides, I discovered the rubber is too soft for letterpress and only good for rubber stamps :(.
I believe that sheet polymer is far more rigid and durable I ha
I always learn the hard way….
ah! thank you. I will avoid the liquid polymer. Sumner, I will message you about using sheet polymer.
Try Boxcar Press
We tend to think within our domain of letterpress. But don’t forget that the vast majority of photopolymer plate users are flexographic printers, and their plates are much softer than letterpress plates. Go into a grocery store, for instance, and almost all of the plastic film (bags and wrappers), paper bags, paper plates, napkins, and some of the paperboard cartons, are printed by flexography with “soft” photopolymer plates. Rubber stamps might come to mind to us as a big use for soft photopolymer plates, but I think it would be rather small compared to flexography. As I recall, liquid photopolymer was popular with corrrugated box printers as a way to make their flexo plates. It was not widely used by higher quality flexo printers because its thickness varied more than sheet photopolymer. I think the biggest brand of liquid photopolymer was called the Hercules Merigraph system.
Send me an e-mail. Let me have more detaisl on the machine. I can buy it from you or get it working for you. Liquid polymers are all water washable. Sheet polymers are all solvent developble. Using sheet on a liquid system is like converting your hybrid car back to gasoline. Goo luck!
Peter
I’ve been using sheet photopolymer plates since 1990 and processing them (on a Anderson & Vreeland Orbital platemaking machine) since 1995. These have all been water washout.
Gerald
I have sold more than 100 units liquid photopolymer plate making system in South East Asia. I have 8 years experinence in liquid photopolymer plate making experience. contact me if you have query on technical issue .
Hello, I’m Jorge from Mexico and I’d like to know how to make cuts for letterpress enough deep to work acceptably than cuts I’ve made until now.
I’cant use Boxcar or something similar tecnology ‘cause it’s very difficult and expensive frome her and for me. That’s the reason that I’m attempting to make my own plates with pieces of metal from computer chasis or something like that. I’m looking something like a brief manual, something before 50’s tecnis using acids or ferric cloruro, things with zinc or something like that. Yes, I know that could be dangerous for my health but it’s just for some plates. I made my first plate with a silkscreening with a serigraphy tecnic using epoxic paint as a mask, but I feel that it isn’t enough deep. Here are some of my attempts. My principal complaint is that it is enough deep and sharp the cut.
Thanks for any help.
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