Sleeve for a printing machine

1. A blanket sleeve for positioning onto a cylinder of an offset printing machine comprising a composite blanket sheath having a two layer structure consisting solely of an internal support layer ( 11 ) and an external cover layer ( 12 ) that is sealed with lacquer, said external cover layer ( 12 ) being directly connected to the internal support layer ( 11 ) and having an outer surface for receiving prints from a printing plate and transferring such prints to a printing medium during an offset printing operation, a hollow support cylinder, said composite blanket sheath being flexible for enabling said composite blanket sheath to be axially stretched over said hollow support cylinder into mounted position on the hollow support cylinder, and said hollow support cylinder and mounted composite blanket sheath being positionable into mounted relation on an offset printing machine cylinder.

2. The sleeve of claim 1 in which the support layer is made of a compressible material.

3. The support layer of claim 2 in which the support layer ( 11 ) is made of fiber reinforced composite material.

4. The sleeve of claim 1 in which said support layer ( 11 ) is fused to said hollow support cylinder which in turn is removeably positionable onto a cylinder of a printing machine.

5. The sleeve of claim 1 in which the support layer ( 11 ) has a thickness of 0.1-100 mm.

6. The sleeve of claim 5 in which the cover layer ( 12 ) has a thickness of 0.1-10 mm.

7. A blanket sleeve for mounting on a cylinder of an offset printing machine comprising a composite blanket sheath having a three layer construction consisting solely of an internal layer designed as a support layer ( 14 ), an external layer designed as cover layer ( 15 ) having an outer surface that is sealed with lacquer for receiving prints from a printing plate and transferring such prints to a printing medium during an offset printing operation, and a register layer ( 16 ) arranged between the support layer ( 14 ) and the cover layer ( 15 ), said external cover layer ( 15 ) and the internal support layer ( 14 ) being directly connected to the register layer ( 16 ) on different sides of the register layer ( 16 ), a hollow support cylinder, said composite blanket sheath being flexible for permitting said composite blanket sheath to be axially stretched over said hollow support cylinder into mounted position on the hollow support cylinder, and said hollow support cylinder and mounted composite blanket sheath being positionable into mounted relation on an offset printing machine cylinder.

8. The sleeve of claim 7 in which the support layer ( 14 ) and the cover layer ( 15 ) are compressible and said register layer ( 16 ) is incompressible.

9. The sleeve of claim 7 in which said cover layer ( 15 ) is compressible and said support layer ( 14 ) and register layer ( 16 ) are incompressible.

10. The sleeve of claim 7 in which said support layer ( 14 ) is compressible and said cover layer ( 15 ) and registered layer ( 16 ) are incompressible.

11. In an offset printing machine having a rotatable cylinder, comprising a hollow blanket holding cylinder mountable on an offset printing machine cylinder, a composite blanket sleeve mounted on the blanket holding cylinder, said blanket sleeve consisting solely of an internal support layer ( 11 ) and an external cover layer ( 12 ) that is sealed with lacquer, said cover layer ( 12 ) having an outer surface for receiving prints from a printing plate and transferring such prints to a printing medium during an offset printing operation, said external cover layer ( 12 ) being directly connected to the internal support layer ( 11 ), and said composite blanket sleeve being flexible for enabling said composite blanket sleeve to be axially pulled and stretched over said hollow holding cylinder into mounted position on the hollow holding cylinder.