BCAS
Vol.25 No.1 2011
Green Plate-making Technology Based on
Nanomaterials
SONG Yanlin
Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. R. China
Email: [email protected]
M
ovable type printing technology is one of the
four great inventions of ancient China which
played a significant role in passing down the
history and civilization of human society. Today, with
economic development and people’s diverse needs for
presswork, printing has penetrated into all spheres of life, and
the printing industry has become one of the industries that
have important impacts on China’s national economy. Since
China is now the third largest printing market in the world,
the rapid development of this huge market calls for digital
plate-making technologies for the sake of environmental
protection. The major plate-making technologies used
nowadays, namely the laser typesetting plate-making
technology and the computer to plate technology (CTP),
involve multiple processes including photo-sensing,
developing, washing, etc., and are complicated, timeconsuming and costly, leading to environment pollution due
to the use of chemicals. In light of the notion of sustainable
development, the environment-friendly “green printing” has
become a trend in the printing industry. Based on innovative
research on nanomaterials, we have developed a new type
of green plate-making technology which abandoned the idea
of photo-sensing and effectively avoided the environment
pollution induced by current plate-making technologies. This
new technology is non-photosensitive, non-polluting and
Figure 1. Technical route of making printing plates via laser typesetting
technology
Figure 2. Technical route of making printing plates via CTP technology
low-cost with simple operation processes, which is bound to
bear positive influences on the sustainable development of
Song Yanlin is a research professor and chief of the New Material Laboratory of the CAS
Institute of Chemistry. His research Interest lies in environmentally-friendly printing materials
and technology, high density information storage medium, and photonic crystal material.
52 Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Vol.25 No.1 2011
green printing process and the printing industry.
I. Current status and problems of plate-making
technologies in China
About 30 years ago, China’s printing industry was
dominated by the movable type printing technology, and
the exhausting word-picking process and heavy use of lead
resulted in low productivity and serious pollution. In the
1980’s, Prof. WANG Xuan, a computer science expert and
Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully
developed a computerized laser photocomposition system
for the typesetting of Chinese characters, lifting China’s
printing industry "out of lead and fire to enter an era of
light and electricity”. Wang’s innovation not only marks a
milestone in the history of Chinese character typesetting,
but is still the mainstream printing-plate technology in
China today. Meanwhile, CTP has become a representative
of advanced plate-making technologies in recent years.
The technical routes of laser typesetting and CTP are
respectively shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2.
The laser typesetting technology involves two steps
of photographic imaging and the corresponding chemical
developing processes, while the CTP involves only one step
of photographic process. However, although the latter has
omitted one step of photo-sensitive chemical imaging and
been optimized to protect environment, the existing platewashing process still inevitably releases chemical waste and
exerts a negative impact on the environment. Therefore,
developing a non-polluting plate-making technology is
urgent for environmental conservation and the sustainable
development of the industry.
II. Research and development of green plate-making
technology based on nanomaterials
Different from the above photo-sensitization imaging
technologies, we have developed a “green” technology for
making printing plates based on nanomaterials. Thanks
to long-time accumulation in the field of nanomaterials
research, we have invented the new technology after
achieving the modulation of surface wettability and the
development of printing materials. It starts from the
innovative application of nanomaterials to meet the specific
Chemistry Benefits Us
requirements of the printing industry via a new platemaking technology route (Figure 3).
The new technology makes use of the superhydrophilic
or superoleophilic properties of nanomaterials to
print specific transfer materials precisely onto the
superhydrophilic plate with micron-nano composite
structures. Through the control of transfer materials and
the interface properties between transfer-printing materials
and the plate with nano-scale roughness, the nmacrozone (graphic and non-graphic zones) with the opposite
wettability (superhydrophobic/ superhydrophilic) will be
formed on the inkjet printing plate, which can be directly
used as a printing plate. As the new technology abandons
the idea of sensitization imaging, it differs radically from
the current plate-making technologies in concept, material
and technical process to be non-photosensing, non-polluting
and of low cost. It provides an opportunity for Chinese
printing enterprises to achieve a technological breakthrough
and contribute to environmental protection.
III. Industrialization of the green plate-making
technology
With support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences
and the Ministry of Science and Technology, our team has
applied more than 30 patents in China, seven of which are
already granted together with 5 PCT (Patent Cooperation
Treaty) patents. By far, we have pooled together all the
necessary technologies for direct plate-making and printing,
including the technologies for making nano-composite
transfer printing materials, superhydrophilic plates with
micro- or nano-structures as well as relevant equipment and
software, and established a pilot line with an annual output
up to millions of square meters of printing plates and tens
of thousands of liters of nano-composite transfer printing
materials. To promote the demonstration applications of the
technology, we are keeping close cooperation with many
printing companies. Through these collaborations, we have
accumulated much experience for further application of the
new technology. It can be expected that the industrialization
of the nanomaterial-based green plate-making technology
would reduce the environmental pollution of printing
plants and play an active role in the greening of the printing
industry in China.
Figure 3. A “green” process of making plates using nanomaterials
Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
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