Provided are a printing blanket and a printing method that enable printing on a printing member having a curved surface at an edge. The printing blanket includes a base member made of an elastic material having a three-dimensional shape with a recessed portion or a hole portion in a center of the base member and a ridge line surrounding the recessed portion or the hole portion, and a printing surface arranged on a surface of the base member on an outer side from the ridge line.

Provided are a printing blanket and a printing method that enable printing on a printing member having a curved surface at an edge. The printing blanket includes a base member made of an elastic material having a three-dimensional shape with a recessed portion or a hole portion in a center of the base member and a ridge line surrounding the recessed portion or the hole portion, and a printing surface arranged on a surface of the base member on an outer side from the ridge line.

Embodiments of the invention relate to a method of indirect printing with an aqueous ink formulation applied to the surface of the intermediate transfer member. Related apparatus, systems and treatment formulations are disclosed herein.

A machine according to at least one embodiment of the present invention comprises a rubber material to be supplied with an oil product containing a softener, wherein an absolute difference between a solubility parameter of the softener and a solubility parameter of the rubber material is 1.7 or less. The machine having a communication portion connecting the rubber material and an outside of the machine, and is configured to supply the oil product from a first end of the communication portion to a second end of the communication portion.

Provided herein is an imaging blanket for variable data lithography comprising (i) a substrate and (ii) a thermally-conductive composition disposed on the substrate comprising a silicone elastomer and a thermally-conductive filler selected from metal oxides, wherein the thermally-conductive composition has a thermal conductivity ranging from about 0.6 W/m.sup.2 to about 1.6 W/m.sup.2. Further provided herein a method of making the imaging blanket, as well as a printing system comprising the imaging blanket, wherein the imaging blanket has improved thermal conductivity.

A porous layer included in a transfer body for image recording by a heat transfer method has a multiple layer configuration, and porous layers are provided such that when a thickness (mm) of each porous layer from a porous layer P(1) of the plurality of porous layers on a side closest to the surface layer to a porous layer P(n) on a side closest to the substrate is set to t(n) (n2), and a total thickness of the transfer body is set to T (mm), Expression (1): CT t(1)+ . . . +t(n) (here, C=0.4, and T1) is satisfied.

Provided are a printing blanket and a printing method that enable printing on a printing member having a curved surface at an edge. The printing blanket includes a base member made of an elastic material having a three-dimensional shape with a recessed portion or a hole portion in a center of the base member and a ridge line surrounding the recessed portion or the hole portion, and a printing surface arranged on a surface of the base member on an outer side from the ridge line.

The transfer member for transfer-type inkjet recording of the present invention is formed so that a surface layer includes an organosiloxane compound having a polyalkylene oxide unit and the contact angle of water and the contact angle of hexadecane on the surface are 85 or more and 110 or less and 25 or more and 50 or less, respectively.

A printing process is disclosed which comprises directing droplets of an ink onto an intermediate transfer member to form an ink image, the ink including an organic polymeric resin and a coloring agent in an aqueous carrier, and the transfer member having a hydrophobic outer surface so that each ink droplet in the ink image spreads on impinging upon the intermediate transfer member to form an ink film. The ink is dried while the ink image is being transported by the intermediate transfer member by evaporating the aqueous carrier from the ink image to leave a residue film of resin and coloring agent. The residue film is then transferred to a substrate. The chemical compositions of the ink and of the surface of the intermediate transfer member are selected such that attractive intermolecular forces between molecules in the outer skin of each droplet and on the surface of the intermediate transfer member counteract the tendency of the ink film produced by each droplet to bead under the action of the surface tension of the aqueous carrier, without causing each droplet to spread by wetting the surface of the intermediate transfer member.

The present disclosure relates to a print process in which ink is transferred as a thin layer to a thin polymeric substrate and then the non-image areas of the polymeric substrate are laser-cured. After the curing of the non-imaged area the remaining ink (non-cured ink) undergoes complete transfer to a print-media-of-interest forming the digital print.