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Harden ImagOn Plate

  • Place developed ImagOn plate on top of the glass in the exposure unit
  • Hardening Exposure - Four times the length of an aquatint exposure
  • -- or -- One minute on the manual setting 
  • Sunlight - 30 minutes 
  • Flash plate for about one minute in exposure unit or for about 30 minutes in the sun
  • Before the plate can be inked you must do a final light-hardening to completely harden the ImagOn emulsion. Failure to do this may result in the etching paper sticking to the surface of the ImagOn plate during the printing procedure. 
  • The actual time a plate can be light-hardened can vary from double the exposure time required for a halftone image to far longer exposures.
  • A long exposure will neutralize the blue color of the ImagOn film. The longer the ImagOn plate is left for this light-hardening the lighter the blue pigmentation of the ImagOn emulsion becomes. If a plate is left for this light hardening long enough the blue pigmentation of the ImagOn emulsion disappears entirely revealing only the color of the substrate. This may appeal to those printmakers who like to be a be able to see the color of their etching plate during inking. The minimum light-hardening times for the 1000W Metal Halide exposure unit would be 20 seconds and for the 400 W Mercury Vapor exposure unit would be 90 seconds.
  • Sunlight can serve to light-harden.
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