Photosensitive photopolymerizable recording element having a terpolymer binder in the photopolymerizable layer

Claim 1

A photosensitive recording element for the production of printing plates and resist images comprising (A) a dimensionally stable base and (B) a photopolymerizable recording layer consisting essentially of the following components: (B1) at least one film-forming copolymer having a mean weight average molecular weight greater than about 10,000 possessing carboxyl groups and being soluble or dispersable in aqueous alkaline solution, said carboxyl groups being 10 to 60% esterified by reaction with glycidyl acrylate, glycidyl methacrylate or mixture thereof, the polymer main chain of said copolymer consisting of the following copolymerized units: (a) from 10 to 50% by weight, based on the sum of all the copolymerized units present, of at least one comonomer selected from the group consisting of hydroxyalkyl acrylates and hydroxyalkyl methacrylates, (b) from 8 to 30% by weight, based on the sum of all copolymerized units present, of acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, or mixture thereof, and (c) from 30 to 80% by weight, based on the sum of all copolymerized units present, of at least one copolymer selected from the group consisting of the alkyl acrylates and the alkyl methacrylates, (B2) at least one ethylenically unsaturated, photopolymeriable compound compatible with the said copolymer (B1) and selected from the group consisting of low molecular weight, ethylenically unsaturated, photopolymerizable monomers and photopolymerizable oligomers having a molecular weight of up to about 5,000, and (B3) at least one photoinitiator.