Exploitable results ECOFLEX - Flexography water plate washout with water recycling The method of processing a conventional flexographic printing plate requires the use of a photosensitive resin plate that is exposed to radiation. Removal of unexposed surfaces to create relief of the cliché requires the use of developer baths, conventionally solvent solutions (halogen-containing or more recently halogen-free). The solvent-developable printing plate tends therefore to be limited in use in the future in view of its adverse influence on environment and harmfulness to human body. The project allowed to design and to develop a universal system able to be adapted on any production line, using several types of consumables. The new processing technology is suitable for the main waterborne resin types ; a system that complies with the flexographic industry's marketing and economic constraints, so as to be accepted by all clichés makers for the benefit of environment protection. Moreover, the plate-makers, which are leading companies in Europe in their field, expects to create an "intelligence group" that will survey, analyse and evaluate the evolutions of water-based technologies and regulations and finally promote non polluting techniques in the flexography area The technology shall come slowly if it reaches quality standard and bring advantages on economical, environmental and social point of view. The leading companies need feedback of customers. The economic benefit at the European scale, is evaluated to 5 MEcu per year. Then manufacturing time and environmental advantages would lead them to use it. Searching for OpenAIRE data... There was an error trying to search data from OpenAIRE No results available
