Patent ID: 7807001

Claim:
A method for laminating a masking film onto a pre-press flexographic printing plate to place the plate in optical contact with the masking film comprising: aligning a pre-laminate flexographic printing plate, including a cover sheet, with a masking film in a nip between a lamination roller and a vacuum table wherein the lamination roller, including one or more lamination flexure plates, is independently supported by a support gantry; removing the cover sheet from the pre-laminate flexographic printing plate using a plow adjacent the nip to produce a flexographic printing plate; laminating by applying, co-temporally with the removing step, a balanced, non-distorting optimized lamination force (F L ) to the flexographic printing plate and the masking film to achieve optical contact between the flexographic printing plate and the masking film that minimizes lateral distortion using the carriage and support gantry.