Cover for a dampening roller of an offset press

Claim 1

A cover for a dampening roller of an offset press, comprising a tubular knitted fabric having two water-shrinkable ground yarns and two hydrophilic pile yarns, said ground yarns being the one selected from the group consisting of yarns of chemical fibers having a shrinkage percentage higher than 20%, said pile yarns being the one selected from the group consisting of yarns of viscose rayon fibers and acetate fibers, said ground yarns being intertwined and respectively forming a tubular double plain weft-knitted fabric structure in which two ground yarns are alternatively knitted so that wales formed by one ground yarn are interposed between two adjacent wales formed by the other ground yarn so that all the wales appear on the face of the fabric, the course of each plain knitted structure including long sinker loops, and said pile yarns being knitted into the respective plain-knitted ground fabric structure to form raised loops, said tubular knitted fabric having a radial shrinkage percentage of 20 to 25% and an axial shrinkage percentage of 25 to 30%.