photopolymer

noun

pho·​to·​poly·​mer ˌfō-tō-ˈpä-lə-mər 

1

: a light-sensitive material that undergoes chemical and physical property changes when exposed to light (as UV or visible)

Aided by a computer design, a 3D printer uses laser technology to build a three-dimensional object from a liquid photopolymer.

—Carl Wilson

2

: a light-sensitive polymer used especially in the manufacture of printing plates

… a photopolymer is used instead of metal to transfer ink from rollers.

—Ken Cleveland

—often used before another noun

photopolymer printing plates

Examples of photopolymer in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Perhaps because the photopolymer plate printing used to make it was already elaborated on in the best-selling 1993 novel The Club Dumas and its 1999 knockoff film adaptation, The Ninth Gate). — Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 8 June 2026

The process involves using a laser to scan the screen for tiny flaws, then filling them with photopolymer to smooth them over. — Eric Zeman, PC Magazine, 17 Mar. 2026

The resins are photopolymers that are cured by ultraviolet light-emitting diodes after each layer is printed. — Phillip W. Barth, IEEE Spectrum, 25 Mar. 2024

To start, a chamber of liquid photopolymer plastic is heated, and a build plate rises from the plastic as an ultraviolet laser scans mirrors to produce each thin layer. — WIRED, 28 Aug. 2022

An engineer named Chuck Hull pioneered the first 3D printer in 1983, making trinkets out of photopolymer that eventually led him to patent the process a year later. — Jennifer Walter, Discover Magazine, 5 Sep. 2019

Word History

First Known Use

1932, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for photopolymer

• biopolymer
• homopolymer
• copolymer
• polymer