Patent GB-430111-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in compositions for treating planographic printing plates
IPC: B41N3/08
Filed: 1934-03-07
Abstract: 430,111. Printing-surfaces; etching. MULTIGRAPH CO., 1814, East 40th Street, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.-(Assignees of Wescott, W. B. ; Springdale Avenue, Dover, Massachusetts, U.S.A.) March 7, 1934, No. 7270. Convention date, Sept. 13, 1933. [Class 100 (ii)] [See also Group III] A solution for etching the non-printing areas of a zinc or aluminium planographic printing- plate, which may also be used as the damping- fluid, as a cleaning-fluid, or as the dispersed phase in a dual-function emulsoid ink of the water-in-oil type, comprises an aqueous solution of a passivator for the metal, chosen from those enumerated below, and an acid phosphate of ammonium or the alkali metal group, to which is added a " peptizing " agent which may be hygroscopic and capable of depressing the diffusion rate in the solution at the surface of the plate, and which serves to prevent turbidity and the formation of crystalline precipitates by acting suitably on the products of the reaction. The passivators referred to are ferric nitrate, nickel chlorate, nickel nitrate, cobalt nitrate and cobalt chlorate, and these substances, together with an acid phosphate of potassium, sodium, and ammonium, serve to etch the desired areas of the plate to a slight extent, the coating produced thereby being such as to cause the action to cease. The " peptizing " agents mentioned are glycerine, gum tragacanth, ethylene glycol and gum arabic. When the plate carries a light-hardened colloid image, the etching solutions induce a minimum swelling thereof by reason of the fact that they are effectively buffered at about the isoelectric point of the image substance, e.g. at pH 3À6 to 4À4. The best results are obtained when the zinc or aluminium plate has been provided in the sensitizing operation or counter-etching with a film of basic aluminium sulphate, when any of the passivators mentioned may be used. When the counter-etching is done with phosphoric, acetic, hydrochloric, or other usual acid, cobalt nitrate is not suitable, while glycerine is to be added to the solution ; when the surface is oxidized, nickel chlorate must also be excepted. Glycerine is preferably included in all fountain solutions or emulsoid inks, and the preliminary etching, the damping, and the cleaning fluids are all preferably the same. If ferric nitrate is used, ammonium citrate must be added before addition of the acid phosphate solution to prevent precipitation. A plate which has been treated with the solution forming the subject-matter of the invention may be cleaned by any of the usual solutions containing a phosphate, phosphoric acid, or other scumremoving agent, such as molybdates or arsenates generally of the alkali metal groups, and all the solutions will readily displace ink from a metal surface previously contacted with gum tragacanth or gum arabic. Chlorides, sulphates, and free alkali, and the impurities in ordinary gum arabic in solution, tend to " poison " the passivating action of the etching solutions. Breakdown of the passivated surface occurs at a triple metal-air-etch boundary, so that in carrying out the first treatment of the plate, the entire surface should be wetted as quickly as possible. In addition, when the press is stopped, the damping-rolls should be removed from contact with the plate. For storage, the plate should be coated with gum tragacanth. British Specifications 345,263 and 430,112, and U.S.A. Specification 1,893,163 are referred to.