Patent ID: 8349185

Claim:
A method for rebalancing a solvent solution used for treating a photosensitive printing element having a photopolymerizable layer with an unpolymerized portion, the method comprising: a) providing a solvent solution that is a mixture of n components, wherein n≧3, wherein each of the components has a first mass fraction, based on a total of the first mass fractions of the components; b) treating the photosensitive printing element with the solvent solution; c) collecting the solvent solution with the unpolymerized portion therein; d) separating the unpolymerized portion from the solvent solution of step c) to form a reclaimant of the components, wherein at least one of the components of the reclaimant has a second mass fraction that is different than the first mass fraction; e) determining a volume of the reclaimant; f) measuring the reclaimant for n−1 properties; g) calculating the second mass fraction of each of the components in the reclaimant based on an equation generated for each measured property of step f), and based on an equation that a total of the second mass fractions of the components in the reclaimant sum to one (1); h) based on the calculated second mass fractions from step q) and the volume from step e), calculating a mass of at least one of the n components to be added to the reclaimant; and i) adding the calculated mass of the at least one of the n components from step h) to the volume of reclaimant, thereby adjusting the second mass fraction of the at least one component in the reclaimant to a target mass fraction; wherein the n−1 properties that were measured in step f) are sufficiently different in their response to changes in mass fraction of the individual components.