Patent ID: 8545661

Claim:
A process for the manufacture of organically developable, photopolymerizable flexographic elements on flexible metallic supports for making flexographic printing plates, wherein the following steps are carried out: (a) coating a flexible metallic support with a tack-free adhesive layer which is insoluble and non-swelling in printing inks and organic developers which comprises a modified polyvinylalcohol containing radically crosslinkable side groups, (b) coating a protective film or a protective element with an organically developable, elastomeric, photopolymerizable layer by dissolution of (i) at least one thermoplastic elastomeric binder, said binder or binders consisting essentially of copolymers selected from the group consisting of SIS-triblock copolymers and SBS-triblock copolymers, (ii) ethylenically unsaturated monomers, (iii) photoinitiator or photoinitiator system and, optionally, (iv) other components in a suitable solvent, pouring the solution onto the protective film or the protective element and then evaporating the solvent, (c) laminating the elastomeric, photopolymerizable layer on its side remote from the protective film with the flexible metallic support coated with an adhesive layer.