Abstract
In the printing industry, offset printing technique is widely used method to print newspapers, magazines and other materials. In order to print the materials, offset printing plate is supposed to be fabricated as a master. Although aluminum substrate based offset printing plate, PS plate, is commonly used, the fabrication process has some problems : strong basic waste from the development process is discharged, and the aluminum substrate must be discarded after printing.
In this work, we have fabricated photocatalyst (TiO2) -based offset printing plates on aluminum and titanium substrates, respectively. The printing plates were fabricated by the combination of four steps : 1) TiO2 and organic layer were deposited on the substrates, 2) water-based ink patterns as a photomask were deposited by ink-jet printer on the substrates, 3) UV irradiation to decompose organic layer due to the photocatalytic reaction of TiO2, 4) water washing to remove water-based ink patterns. We, in actual, have succeeded to print in color, and black and white using the fabricated printing plate. Interestingly, the fabricated offset printing plate can be renewed by a removal of organic layer under UV irradiation. The renewed printing plate demonstrated the high quality printing as well as initial one. This methodology to fabricate photocatalyst-based offset printing plates offers a new, resource-saving, environmentally friendly printing method.
