{"id":804,"date":"2023-08-08T02:56:50","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T02:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diasinh.com.vn\/?p=804"},"modified":"2023-08-08T02:56:50","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T02:56:50","slug":"how-are-printing-plates-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diasinh.com.vn\/en\/how-are-printing-plates-made\/","title":{"rendered":"How Are Printing Plates Made?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Printing plates are made from mining bauxite and then refining it to get aluminum rolls. The rolls are shipped to a printing plate manufacturer who uncoils, etches, cleans, and then dries them before sending it to a commercial printer.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Let’s take a look at each of the steps.\u00a0 There are 3 stages to the manufacture of printing plates: Mining, production and prepress.<\/span><\/div>\n
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STAGE 1 – MINING<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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1. Bauxite<\/b>\u00a0– Making printing plates starts with bauxite.\u00a0 It exists around the belt of the equator and is mined and sent to refineries.\u00a0 Aluminum is in bauxite. It takes about two tons of bauxite to get one ton of aluminum and needs to be sent to a refinery to separate it.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Open pit bauxite mine.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>2.\u00a0Refining\u00a0<\/b>– In the refining process (illustrated below), the first step is called digestion where the bauxite is mixed with caustic soda and steam at high temperature. Then a clarification takes place where impurities like mud are allowed to settle in a tank. Two more purification process take place with precipitation and calcination whereby more impurities are removed.<\/span><\/div>\n
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3. Smelting<\/b>\u00a0– A large smelting refinery then prepares the aluminum for an electrolysis process. Because it is an electrical process, these smelting plants tend to be close to large power stations.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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4. Casting slabs<\/b>\u00a0– The result when it is shipped from the refinery looks like this.\u00a0 To now process it into printing plates, it must be processed further.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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\"Aluminum<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Aluminum slabs<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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5. Sawing and scalping<\/b>\u00a0– A saw will then cut the slabs into sheets that more closely resemble a printing plate.\u00a0 Here is a video that shows that process.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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