Method for imaging printing forms
View Patent ↗A method for imaging a printing form, in particular within a press, is disclosed. A printing form having a rewritable surface being provided, and an imaging material being applied to the surface of the printing form in order to provide a permanent and erasable image. During imaging, in a first step the imaging material is sprayed onto the surface with a relatively low resolution in an image data-oriented manner, and in a second step the imaging material sprayed onto the surface being exposed on the surface with a relatively high resolution in an image data-oriented manner.
1. A method for imaging a printing form, in particular within a press, a printing form having a rewritable surface being provided, and an imaging material being applied to the surface of the printing form in order to provide a permanent and erasable image, wherein, during imaging, in a first step the imaging material is sprayed onto the surface with a low resolution in an image data-oriented manner, and in a second step the imaging material sprayed onto the surface being exposed on the surface with a high resolution in an image data-oriented manner, wherein in order to carry out the image data-oriented spraying of the imaging material, printing image data present in a high resolution are screened or filtered to generate lower-resolution data, the spraying of the imaging material being carried out on a basis of the lower-resolution data.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein in the first step the resolution of the image data-oriented spraying of the imaging material is lower than a resolution of the printing image to be printed.
3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein in the first step the imaging material is sprayed onto the surface in an inkjet process.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein in the second step the resolution of the exposure has a substantially same resolution as a resolution of the printing image to be printed.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein in the second step the exposure of the imaging material is carried out in a laser exposure process.
6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the image data-oriented spraying of the imaging material onto the surface and the image data-oriented exposure of the imaging material on the surface are carried out in a traversing manner, wherein a spraying device and an exposure device arranged on a crossmember are moved past the printing form in an axial direction thereof in a translatory manner with the printing form rotating.
7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the image data-oriented spraying of the imaging material onto the surface and the image data-oriented exposure of the imaging material on the surface are carried out with an offset in space and time.
8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein unexposed imaging material is removed from the surface of the printing form.
9. A method for imaging a rewritable and erasable printing form, comprising the steps of:
spraying an imaging material onto a surface of the printing form based on image data with a low resolution; and
exposing the sprayed imaging material based on image data with a high resolution.
10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the low resolution is lower than a resolution of a printing image to be printed by the printing form and wherein the high resolution has a substantially same resolution as the resolution of the printing image to be printed by the printing form.
11. The method according to claim 9 , further comprising the step of removing unexposed imaging material from the surface of the printing form.
12. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the spraying is performed by an inkjet spraying device.
13. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the exposing is performed by a laser exposure device.
14. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the image data with the low resolution is generated from high resolution printing image data.
15. A method for imaging a rewritable and erasable printing form, comprising the steps of:
spraying an imaging material onto a surface of the printing form based on image data with a low resolution by moving a spraying device in an axial direction of the printing form; and
exposing the sprayed imaging material based on image data with a high resolution by moving an exposing device in the axial direction of the printing form.
16. The method according to claim 15 , further comprising the step of rotating the printing form.
17. The method according to claim 15 , further comprising the step of successively spraying sections of the surface of the printing form prior to the step of exposing.
18. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the low resolution is lower than a resolution of a printing image to be printed by the printing form and wherein the high resolution has a substantially same resolution as the resolution of the printing image to be printed by the printing form.
19. The method according to claim 15 , further comprising the step of removing unexposed imaging material from the surface of the printing form.