The invention presented is a pad printing blanket that reduces damage to pad printing heads. The industry-standard pad printing head is soft plastic, silicone or urethane. The pad is used to print designs on three-dimensional surfaces and the pad must be pressed firmly onto said surfaces. This pressure leaves permanent indentations on the print pad surface, eventually rendering the print pad useless for printing. The invention covers said print pad with a blanket of soft plastic which carries the ink for the image. Only the pad blanket contacts the printable surface, protecting the print pad and reducing the need for expensive print pad replacement.

A printing blanket is provided which may include a printable surface ply, a compressible ply, one or more reinforcing fabric plies, and a non-extensible backing layer comprising a polymeric material. The printing blanket has first and seconds ends which are adapted to be inserted into the gap of a printing blanket cylinder, where each of the first and second ends may include a relief area formed by removing or molding a portion of the blanket or by removing or molding a portion of the non-extensible backing layer such that the blanket may be mounted in a wide variety of printing presses using a number of different lock-up mechanisms.

A printing blanket is provided which may include a printable surface ply, a compressible ply, one or more reinforcing fabric plies, and a non-extensible backing layer comprising a polymeric material. The printing blanket has first and seconds ends which are adapted to be inserted into the gap of a printing blanket cylinder, where each of the first and second ends may include a relief area formed by removing or molding a portion of the blanket or by removing or molding a portion of the non-extensible backing layer such that the blanket may be mounted in a wide variety of printing presses using a number of different lock-up mechanisms.