• New Conti-Air Argon, Xenon UV and Onyx for optimum rolling characteristics in direct drive presses
• New Conti-Air DUO Double compressible layer design   
• New Conti-Air NitroCoat Unique integration of compressible layer for spot coating  

Düsseldorf, May 2016. At  drupa (May 31 to June 10, 2016), printing blanket specialist ContiTech will present a whole range of new Conti-Air products, all of which are precisely tailored to customers' needs and innovatively developed in line with the technical requirements of the market. The new printing blankets Conti-Air Argon, Xenon UV, and Onyx have been specially developed for the demands of the single-drive next generation of higher speed presses. Also new is the Conti-Air Duo printing blanket, which, thanks to a double compressible layer, is the perfect solution for wide format packaging presses with frequent sheet size changes. The advanced Conti-Air NitroCoat coating plate is the only product on the market to have an integrated compressible underblanket.

A trio ready for anything

The three new printing blankets, Conti-Air Argon, Xenon UV, and Onyx, are based on the same carcass but differ in terms of their covers, which are adapted to different fields of use. All three have been designed for the new direct-drive machine generation. "Individually driven cylinders create stronger forces that affect the printing blanket," explains Rodolfo Stephanus, sales manager at Conti-Air Offset Printing Blankets at ContiTech Elastomer Coatings. "Our new printing blankets compensate for these forces and ensure unrestricted, optimum rolling characteristics."

After extensive testing with the newest LED and other low energy UV curing systems, we have incorporated new polymers to accommodate these specialized UV inks and eliminate the color contamination issues printers often face when wet trapping heavy coverage jobs. The Conti-Air Xenon UV has been specially designed for UV inks used in energy-efficient printing.  Until now, the UV drying process has been very energy-intensive. Today, new technologies ensure the same drying effect with a significantly lower consumption of energy. "The new Xenon UV printing blanket has been adapted for use with the latest UV drying technologies and is, therefore, ideal for UV printing," says Stephanus.
The Conti-Air Argon has been specially developed for use in large-format sheet-fed and newspaper printing, thus ensuring optimum dot sharpness.

The Conti-Air Onyx printing blanket is the all-arounder of the three newcomers. "It's suitable for printing shops that switch between conventional and UV inks," Stephanus states. The transfer surface of the Onyx blanket is based on a further development of the market leading to Conti-Air Ebony dual use printing blanket.  

Innovative printing blanket for large-format printing

The Conti-Air Duo has been specially developed for packaging printing with a focus on color fastness and the design of the compressible layer. It was specifically developed for the application: "This blanket has two compressible layers, which gives it particularly flexible properties," says Stephanus. The special nature of the components used makes the blanket very resistant and dimensionally stable. Especially in packaging printing, which uses hard cardboard materials and varying formats, this is a considerable advantage. The double compressible layer under the printing blanket surface minimizes both imprints in the blanket and the cutting of edges.

Unique printing blanket for spot coating

The new Conti-Air NitroCoat has an ICL – an integrated compressible layer. An additional compressible underblanket is, therefore, no longer necessary, saving both time and money. The Polyester based coating plate/blanket is dimensionally stable, therefore, avoiding displacement in the register. Conti-Air NitroCoat is ideal for UV coating, aqueous, and dispersion coatings. The transfer surface is ink-repellent, ensuring no ink build-up and a perfect application of the coating.