Importance

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Abstract

Disclosed are a printing plate precursor, a fabrication process of the printing plate precursor, a fabrication process of a printing plate, a regeneration process of the printing plate, a printing press, and a coating formulation for the printing plate precursor. According to the present invention, a printing plate can be fabricated directly from digital data, and sufficient image quality can be obtained without a developing step, i.e., a developer. To permit repeated use of the precursor, the precursor has a surface, which contains a photocatalyst and is capable of showing hydrophilicity when exposed to activating light having energy higher than band gap energy of the photocatalyst. A coating formulation--which comprises fine particles of a thermoplastic resin having both a property that the particles unite to the surface when heated and a property that the particles decompose under action of the photocatalyst when exposed to activating light having energy higher than band gap energy of the photocatalyst--is applied as a hydrophobizing agent onto the surface. At least apart of the surface of the precursor is heated such that the fine particles applied on the part of the surface are fixed to form a hydrophobic image area. The fine particles applied on the remaining part of the surface with the image area formed thereon are then removed.

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First Claim