Alcohol wash gray printing plates

The Alcohol wash gray printing plates are also known as A/W Gray Pad Printing Plate (Cliche) or the S43 printing plate. This type of plate is steel backed, nylon-photopolymer coated. To develop the plate alcohol is needed. These alcohol gray plates have a thickness of .43mm.

In general, alcohol developed plates are superior to water wash plates. They last longer and are ideal for fine detail artwork.  Alcohol wash gray printing plates have a life cycle of 20,000 to 30,000 impressions.

Boston Industrial Solutions, Inc. manufactures pad printing plates for any type of pad printing machine. We cut and punch plates for any type of machine. We offer thousands (1,000) of different alcohol wash gray pad printing plate sizes. These pads are ideal for many printing applications—standard and unique decorating applications. Our experts complement the pad printing plates by offering the best service and support advice for selecting pads.

All the alcohol gray pad printing plates are competitively priced.

These plates can also ideal to use with the SE Silicone inks.  These alcohol wash printing plates deliver:

• Perfect image resolution on each print,
• Very durable – they last 25,000 impressions.

We carry thousands of alcohol wash gray plates, 100x100mm, 100x250mm, 100x224mm etc.  We also offer custom shaped pads.

Characteristics of alcohol wash gray pad printing plates

• Unused plates look light gray in color. The peeled plate is green in color.
• Exposure unit UV light source should be between 360-380nm.
• Use a flat container and brush for the friction removal of the unexposed / dissolved material.
• Immerse the exposed plate in the alcohol developer and rub with a brush to remove unexposed material.
• Use developer –  a special alcohol-water mixture made for alcohol washable plates.

Gray printing plates sizes

The S43 gray printing plates has to fit your machine. Some machines have clamps while others have pins.  We cut the alcohol wash gray plates to fit any machine.

The chosen pad must have enough mass to prevent image distortion. This is because the pads body is the foundation for the print surface.

S43 / Gray Alcohol Developed Plate Specifications

• Art Film Exposure Time – 90-120 seconds
• Screen Tint Time – 90 seconds (Less time increases depth of etch while more lessens decreases the etch.)
• Washout Time (With Alcohol Plate Developer) – 3-4 minutes at 35°C/95°F
• Drying Time – Minimum of 20 minutes at 80°C/175°F
• Post Exposure Time – Minimum of 20 minutes