National Standards Urgently Needed for Printing Blankets

[ppzhan Abstract] As a guarantee for the orderly development of an industry, standards have always been sought after by many enterprises. The printing blanket industry is no exception. At present, the field of national standards for printing blankets is still a blank; according to an announcement issued by the National Printing Standardization Technical Committee at the end of January 2012, a standard for offset printing blankets is tentatively planned for inclusion in the 2013 standard project initiation plan.

At present, China's annual production capacity of printing blankets exceeds 1.5 million square meters, with annual total output value of around 400 million yuan. Although its proportion in the total output value of the printing industry is negligible, it is of decisive importance to the quality of printed products.

In order to better guide the future development of printing equipment and materials enterprises, the China Printing and Equipment Industry Association established a Printing Blanket Professional Committee in July 2012. But to this day, there is still no dedicated national standard for printing blankets in China; there is only a monograph, 'Technical Manual for Users of Printing Blankets', published by Printing Industry Press in July 2012, whose publication filled a gap in technical reference books of this kind in China.

Li An, secretary-general of the National Printing Standardization Technical Committee, said that as a council member of the Printing Blanket Professional Committee, Shanghai Xinxing should actively participate in the formulation of the relevant national industry standards. Although formulating such standards is a very difficult and cumbersome matter requiring the testing of a great deal of data, if a national brand wants to capture this market it must seize this commanding height. For the printing blanket standard, it is necessary to address issues such as printability, usage requirements and process control, and such test data need to be accumulated to a certain extent.

According to an announcement issued by the National Printing Standardization Technical Committee at the end of January 2012, the standard for offset printing blankets is tentatively planned for inclusion in the 2013 standard project initiation plan.

Postscript: A printing blanket is made from multiple layers of special woven fabric and synthetic rubber compounds. During manufacturing, the woven fabric and rubber are bonded together under controlled processes using thermal and chemical energy; in addition, different compounds and structures give the blanket different performance on the press.

—This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn); original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-361960.html