Consumables

Trelleborg Printing Blankets – The Company

Tuesday 25. May 2010 - The Trelleborg Group is a major global corporation with around 24,000 employees, involved in areas ranging from the oil to the motor car industries. In 2006 the group purchased Reeves, which manufactured the Vulcan range, one of the best known brands of offset blankets for the sheet-fed, web offset and newspaper markets.

Part of the attraction of Reeves was its pioneering research and development in polymer based compounds, an area that offered great synergy. The blankets division of Reeves is now known as Trelleborg Printing Blankets, which is a product area within Trelleborg Engineered Systems whose president, Lennart Johansson, believes that the graphic arts industry is now an important sector for Trelleborg.

‘Our philosophy is to acquire companies that we can integrate for the benefit of the whole group while growing that original business over the long term. When we visited the Reeves factories in Italy, China and the USA we were extremely impressed by what we saw. Their health, safety and environmental policies, the level of groundbreaking R&D and the manufacturing facilities are on a par with the best in the world in any market.’

Trelleborg Printing Blankets’ Lodi Vecchio plant in Italy was awarded ISO 14001 at the end of 2007 for the work it has carried out in making the factory and the products produced there as environmentally friendly as possible. This ‘environmental philosophy’ is a key element throughout all Trelleborg product areas.

Dario Porta is managing director of Trelleborg Printing Blankets. ‘During the last eighteen months there has been a great deal of cross fertilisation of ideas and our policy of getting people together from different sectors of the business eg R&D, sales, technical support, management etc so that each can benefit from the knowledge of the others, has been extremely productive,’ says Mr Porta.

‘We’ve significantly strengthened the management team with appointments that have included a new operational manager and CFO as well as taking on a highly qualified and experienced person for the new position of group technology leader for Trelleborg Printing Blankets. In her new role, Dr Rosanna Santorelli oversees the R&D work carried out by our global laboratory facilities.’

With more than 50 years experience in producing blankets the company is in a unique position to provide comprehensive technical advice, to ensure the correct blanket solution is chosen to meet the type of work, press and budget of the customer, while guaranteeing an after-sales care that is not equalled anywhere in the world amongst blanket suppliers.

Trelleborg Printing Blankets employs around 540 people. The factory in Lodi Vecchio, Italy, produces most of the Vulcan blankets used in Europe and Asia, while the plant in China mainly supplies the Chinese graphic arts industry. The USA factory serves its internal market as well as Canada and South America.

Blankets leave the factories on two metre wide rolls for delivery to converters/ distributors, which are exclusive for each country and who turn the rolls into cut and barred blankets for their local customers. Many of these companies have been handling the Vulcan brand for more than 30 years, so have a comprehensive knowledge of the product, the technology and the local market.

A close working relationship with distributors, press manufacturers and end users over the years has resulted in the development of blanket solutions for most applications. These include Vulcan blankets for conventional, UV, hybrid and specialist printing in the carton and packaging sectors plus blankets for commercial sheet-fed and web offset sectors. The company also makes blankets for the digital presses (Trelleborg is an official supplier to HP Indigo) and metal-backed blankets for the newspaper market.

Trelleborg reports a worldwide trend for sheet-fed printers to purchase the top of the range Vulcan blankets, in order to obtain the highest print quality possible, even when handling ‘standard commercial work’. The increasing move towards value-added printing, where companies incorporate UV, brand protection, metal decorating facilities etc within the press line has also had an impact on blanket buying patterns.

‘I think the industry can expect to see some new developments during Drupa for handling UV inks and varnishes, because this is a growing part of the commercial sheet-fed and packaging sectors. Printers want ‘value-added’ features on their presses, which has resulted in longer, multi-colour models with perfecting options, UV varnishing, in-line die cutting, personalisation facilities etc.

‘The other feature that a printer must have is good technical support from the supplier. Sound after-sales care from an expert with a comprehensive knowledge of blankets is vital when there is a problem on the press and the printer is not sure if the blanket is the cause,’ says Dario Porta.

‘Probably the most unattractive trend in recent years has been for the printer to be let down because the supplier that has sold the blanket does not have the expertise to help when he most needs it. Customer care is one of the areas in which we pride ourselves and why we are promoting this service at Drupa by inviting printers – whether Vulcan users or not – to call on our stand with any print/blanket related technical queries.’