Abstract: A protection ring for a printing sleeve such as a sleeve or cylinder carrying the characters to be printed, or an adapter sleeve for supporting said sleeve or cylinder, the sleeve to be mounted on a rotary mandrel provided with a register pin, can include an annular body to be disposed on an end edge of the sleeve. The body defines a first coupling member for its detachable coupling to the sleeve, which is provided with a second coupling member for cooperating with the first coupling member. The body includes a register notch for cooperating with the mandrel's register pin. The body includes a first orientation element for properly orienting the ring on the sleeve, to enable the ring to be disposed on the sleeve such that the register notch lies in a position suitable for cooperation with the register pin.

Abstract: An adapter sleeve has an external layer for supporting a printing cylinder carrying data and/or images to be printed. The adapter sleeve has an internal layer defining a bore enabling the sleeve to be mounted onto a rotary mandrel of a printing machine. Each opposite extreme end of the adapter sleeve includes a rigid, load-bearing, radial spacer member disposed between the layers to provide rigidity and indeformability during the use of the sleeve with time. The inner surface of each of the extreme end radial spacer members is defined by rigid and non-deformable material of very low coefficients of dynamic and static friction.

Abstract: A printing member such as a printing cylinder includes an at least partly metal cylinder, or a sleeve to be mounted on a mandrel rotating about its axis. The printing member comprises a body having a thickness. With the printing member there is associated an activatable signaling device that is connectable to a recording device that is arranged to store data related to at least one characteristic of the printing member or to the use of the printing member. The activatable signaling device can include a transponder such as an RFID.

Abstract: A printing member such as a printing cylinder includes an at least partly metal cylinder, or a sleeve to be mounted on a mandrel rotating about its axis. The printing member comprises a body having a thickness. With the printing member there is associated an activatable signaling device that is connectable to a recording device that is arranged to store data related to at least one characteristic of the printing member or to the use of the printing member. The activatable signaling device can include a transponder such as an RFID.

Abstract: A sleeve to be drawn over a rotary support in order to define a blanket cylinder of an indirect or offset printing machine, this cylinder cooperating with a lithographic plate cylinder from which it receives the date to be printed and with a substrate onto which said data are transferred, said substrate moving between the blanket cylinder and a pressure cylinder, the sleeve comprising an inner cylindrical portion to be drawn over the aforesaid rotary support and having its surface covered by a layered structure comprising at least one compressible layer and an incompressible outer layer arranged to cooperate directly with the lithographic plate and with the substrate to be printed; the layered structure being composed at least partly of polyurethane material.

Abstract: A method of forming a photopolymer layer on a printing substrate (e.g., flexographic printing sleeves and cylinders) is provided. The method includes providing a photopolymer composition that contains a photopolymer and at least one monomer bonded to the photopolymer. The monomer can help reduce the hardness of the resulting photopolymer composition. In addition, the method also includes spraying the photopolymer composition onto a rotating generally cylindrical surface of the printing substrate. In one embodiment, the sprayed photopolymer composition is then cured. The resulting photopolymer layer is seamless and continuous and, in some embodiments, has a hardness of between about 50 to about 70 Shore A.

Abstract: A printing sleeve for use in flexographic or gravure printing applications is provided. In particular, the printing sleeve contains a bridge layer that is formed from a generally rigid and relatively expandable material, which is disposed adjacent to a core layer. For example, in one embodiment, the bridge layer is made from a polyurethane material having a Shore D hardness of about 20 to about 85. As a result of the present invention, printing sleeves can be formed to be more durable and maintain better TIR tolerances than conventional printing sleeves.

Abstract: An inner sleeve portion in the form of a spacer sleeve is disclosed for being torsionally rigidly mounted on a rotogravure or flexographic mandrel that is to be rotated about its axis when used in a printing machine. The outer surface of the inner sleeve portion torsionally rigidly supports by an interference fit, an outer sleeve portion (the printing sleeve) that carries the printing matrices. The inner sleeve portion has a plurality of air channels extending from the inner surface through the outer surface. Pressurized air flowing through the channels assists in expanding the diameter of the innermost surface of the outer sleeve portion for alternatively mounting the outer sleeve portion onto the inner sleeve portion and dismounting the outer sleeve portion from the inner sleeve portion.