There are two types of flexible plates: rubber plates and photosensitive grease flexible plates. They use different materials and methods of plate making
（1） Rubber version
The rubber version is made of natural rubber or synthetic rubber as raw materials, using manual carving or molding methods. This is the earliest method of making flexible plates, similar to carving rubber seals. First, the good patterns and text are reverse pasted onto the surface of the rubber plate, and then carefully carved into a relief plate by hand. Then, the carved rubber is pasted onto the plate roller of the rotary printing machine, which can print plastic packaging materials such as corrugated cardboard boxes, packaging kraft paper, woven bags, etc. with slow manual engraving speed and poor accuracy, and can only print some simple patterns and lower grades. You can use 501 or 502 universal adhesive or double-sided tape for pasting.
（2） The molding method is divided into three steps
(1) To produce a metal relief plate (original version), the photographic plate making method is used to take a negative image of the original text and images. A photosensitive adhesive is applied to the surface of the metal plate (copper, zinc), and after exposure, development, and corrosion, it becomes a metal relief plate.
(2) The pressing template is made of metal relief plate as the original version, and thermosetting resin (resin) is used as the material on the pressing machine to obtain a four shaped template by heating and pressing
(3) Press the rubber convex plate onto the template and lay a rubber sheet (natural rubber or synthetic rubber) on it, which is then vulcanized, molded, and cured to make a rubber plate. According to the thickness required for printing, the back of the printing plate can be ground flat before being mounted for machine printing. The graphic and textual precision of the molded rubber plate is better than that of the hand carved rubber plate. A single template can repeatedly press multiple rubber plates, making the process complex, cost-effective, and inefficient.
