Printing Blanket Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends & Forecasts (2024 - 2029)

Printing Blanket Market Analysis

The Printing Blanket Market size is estimated at USD 0.96 billion in 2024, and is expected to reach USD 1.18 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 4.34% during the forecast period (2024-2029).

• Printing blankets are in high demand due to their essential role in ink transfer and pressure regulation. These blankets help transmit ink from the printing press to the paper, ensuring the proper degree of pressure is maintained. Printers need a consistent supply to produce high-quality prints. Additionally, advancements in digital printing technology have increased the demand for printing blankets. This technology requires larger blanket sizes for large-format printing. The improved quality and efficiency of digital printing have made it more popular among businesses and consumers, further driving the demand for printing blankets.
• The printing blanket plays a crucial role in printing by transferring ink from the plate to the substrate. It needs to swiftly lift the ink off the plate and promptly deposit it onto the substrate's surface. Ensuring a seamless transfer is vital to maintaining the image's clarity, achieving precise dot definition, and minimizing dot gain. Moreover, the blanket's ability to swiftly release the printed sheet or paper web is paramount. Factors like web tension, paper transport, and register accuracy can all be directly impacted by the performance of the printing blanket.
• Printing blankets has extensive applications in high-quality printing for flexible packaging. Offset printing blankets, specifically tailored for lithographic printing, are pivotal in this sector. They are instrumental in wide web printing for pouches, wrap-around designs, and other flexible packaging applications. Moreover, digital flexible packaging applications are gaining traction, enabling high-quality, on-demand printing of flexible packaging. This approach boasts lower setup costs and quicker production cycles compared to traditional lithographic printing.
• Continuous enhancement of rubber compounds and fabric carriers guarantees that blankets fulfill the demands of emerging printing press models. Ongoing advancements in printing methods for blankets are being pursued as technology progresses. Blankets can serve various purposes, such as advertising and providing warmth. Digital printing stands as the predominant form of printing blanket. With technological progress, the quality of digital prints continues to improve, leading to a rise in the appeal of this type of printing blanket.
• On the other hand, printing blankets encounter various difficulties during printing. Typical issues consist of incorrect bearer pressure, damage to the packing, curled edges, and flattened blankets. These challenges may result in printing flaws like empty spaces or dark spots on the print, causing longer periods of inactivity and decreased efficiency.
• In March 2023, Fujikura Composites made significant strides by extending its curved surface printing blanket operations beyond Japan. The company reported a notable uptick in sales and profits for its Printing Materials (blankets) division during the fiscal year's first half (April to December), concluding on March 31, 2023. While the Japanese market exhibited sluggishness, robust exports spearheaded the growth trajectory. The successful adoption of price hikes from the preceding fiscal year further bolstered the company's performance. Such vendor developments are expected to increase the market's potential in the coming years.
• The rise in the need for top-notch prints across different sectors like packaging, commercial printing, and publishing is propelling the expansion of this market. The expansion of the packaging sector, particularly in developing nations, plays a crucial role in fueling the requirement for offset printing blankets. Despite this, offset printing continues to dominate a substantial portion of the printing industry, particularly for extensive print jobs, thus ensuring a strong demand for offset printing blankets.

Printing Blanket Market Trends

Packaging is Expected to be the Most Significant Application of Printing Blankets

Printing Blanket Industry Segmentation

• A printing blanket is a synthetic composite fabric utilized in the offset printing sector to convey ink from the roller to substrates such as paper, textiles, or metal. It is positioned over the plate cylinder and acts as the intermediary that transforms the right-reading image on the plate into a wrong-reading image on the rubber blanket, which is subsequently transferred to the final substrate.
• The printing blanket market is segmented by blanket type (UV printing blankets, conventional printing blankets, and combination printing blankets), substrate type (paper and board printing, metal printing, textile printing [fabric], and other printing), application type (packaging, commercial, newspaper, and other application types), and geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World). The market sizes and forecasts are provided in terms of value (USD) for all the above segments.