Abstract:
A method for monitoring the accumulation of impurities on a surface (2) of a rubber blanket of a printing press (1), said surface rotating about an axis (4) of said rubber blanket, characterized by the steps of a) determining a measuring area (3) on said rotating surface to be monitored, b) illuminating the measuring area with at least two light sources (101), c) acquiring images of the measuring area with at least one image sensor (102), d) acquiring a topographic illustration of said images by means of a topographic measurement system, e) repeating the above steps b), c) and d) one or more times, f) registering an increasing amount of accumulated impurities from the acquired topographic illustrations, and g) interrupting the operation of the printing press for cleaning said surface when the amount of accumulated impurities on the measuring area has reached a predetermined level.