Breaking news by making newspapers more sustainable, Enviro Image Solutions (EIS) successfully trials their Blanket Renewal Program with web blankets at Pacific Press, printer of such newspapers as the Vancouver Sun.

When most people think print, they think printed newspapers, since historically they have been one of the highest volume printed products. Even though the industry has shrunk in recent years, there are still approximately 1 billion newspapers printed daily worldwide. “Web blankets used to print newspapers were a special challenge since they see a lot of wear,” said Dan McDonald, EIS Director of R&D. “But since newspapers are such a large part of the industry, it was a challenge we were willing to take on.” Previously EIS focused on renewing sheet-fed offset blankets, but are now continuing to build on recent successes by renewing web-fed blankets.

The Blanket Renewal Program has been a success with Pacific Press, with the renewed blankets lasting almost 6 months on press with no compromise to print quality. Unfortunately this web blanket technological breakthrough came a little too late for Pacific Press who will be closing up shop later this year, but EIS intends to help other newspaper printers to stay in business into the future.

“Now with this advance in our technology, we can really help newspaper printers become more sustainable and stay in business,” said George Retsos, COO of EIS. A printing blanket can be renewed multiple times using the EIS Blanket Renewal Technology, helping to make the printing of newspapers more sustainable by reducing the amount of blankets that end up in landfills. Also, a blanket is renewed at about a third of the price of a new blanket, and the program can save printers tens of thousands of dollars annually with zero investment. And in these competitive times, that can make the difference as to whether a printer can survive.