Patent ID: 8137897

Claim:
A process for developing a lithographic plate, comprising: (a) selecting an imaged plate having (i) a substrate with a grained, anodized, hydrophilic surface; (ii) a negative working, organic, polymerizable coating in which all active components for polymerization are insoluble in any of the group of fluids consisting of water, fountain solution and ink; (iii) wherein said coating is non-ionically bonded to the substrate and has been imaged by polymerization in areas exposed to radiation, such that the cohesion of the unimaged areas of the coating exceeds the adhesion of the unimaged areas of the coating to the substrate; and (b) subjecting the entire coating to mechanical forces while the coating is in contact with one of said fluids, which forces disrupt and remove only the unimaged areas of the coating from the substrate surface in the form of particulate material and without dispersing the unimaged areas of the coating into the fluid at the substrate surface, wherein the plate is on a rotating cylinder of a printing press having an ink roll that applied ink to the coating and a rotating blanket roll that is in contact with the coating; and the mechanical forces are applied by the blanket roll pulling ink and unimaged coating material adhered to the ink, off the substrate.