Stone plate lithography

Lithography is a method of printing an image by applying patterned layers of color to paper with a series of etched metal or stone plates. This is the process used to print many newspapers and multi-colored lithographs. It is also the general name for the techniques used to fabricate integrated circuits (ICs). 

Aqua fortis, or nitric acid, muriatic acid, vinegar, tartaric acid, malic acid, and oxalic acid are typical acids used in stone plate lithography to etch away nonimage, nonwritten areas of the stone, i.e., areas that are not properly covered with grease. 

Still another aspect of the evolution of lithography relates to the speed with which it is carried out. While Senefelder s stone plate lithography took hours, if not an entire day to complete just one print, today, an IC device layer on a silicon wafer substrate containing hundreds of devices, each of which may have nearly one hillion transistors, can he patterned in just under one minute. 

Senefelder s method was perfected over time. Metal plates were soon used in place of stone slabs. Several chemical solutions that repelled water and adhered to ink better than grease could were experimented with. Lithography was used with several different color inks to create color pictures, called lithographs, which were made famous by Currier and Ives. 

The first steam lithographic press was invented in France in 1850 and introduced into the United States by R. Hoe around 1868. Lithographic stones were used for the image and a blanket-covered cylinder received the image from the plate and transferred it to the substrate in the steam lithographic press. Direct rotary presses for lithography using zinc and aluminum metal plates were... 

Lithography is the process of making an image on a flat stone or metal plate and using ink to print the image onto another surface. Areas of the plate are etched or treated chemically in order to attract or repel ink. The ink is then transferred, directly or indirectly, to the surface where the final image appears. 

I The idea of using a mixture of wax and ink written on stone came to Senefelder by accident. He was interrupted in his work one day by his mother, who needed him to write a bill for a washerwoman waiting at the door. Senefelder scrawled the information onto a new stone printing plate. The result inspired him to develop the process that became lithography. 

Lithography, originally performed with flat and smooth stone surfaces and nowadays with polymer-covered plates, is a printing technique for inks where the surface of the plate is structured into lipophilic and hydrophilic areas, from which the former ones show adhesion tendencies towards a greasy ink which is then printed onto the support. 

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