In the early days of paper-making, no blankets were used. The origin and development of paper-making blankets began with the industrialization of paper production, and also with the improvement of production technology of paper-making industry. The origin and development of blankets are mainly manifested in two aspects: one is the raw materials used for paper-making blankets; the other is the structure and production technology of paper-making blankets, which are complementary.

The earliest blanket production in the world began in ancient Greece in 900 BC, but at that time, people did not produce blankets for paper making. At that time, the Greeks made felt from the wool of other animals, such as wool and camel hair. People called it "felt". It can be used to make hats, blankets and helmet linings for soldiers. Thicker blankets can be used as armor for soldiers and clothes and tents for ancient nomadic tribes.

In 105 A.D., Cai Lun, the eunuch of the Eastern Han Dynasty, invented the earliest papermaking technology in the world. The paper he made by hand technology is very similar to the paper used by modern people. It can be said that it was a revolutionary creation at that time, also known as one of the "four great inventions" of ancient China. It took about 500 years for this paper-making technology to be introduced to South Korea and Japan in Asia, and about 1000 years later, it was introduced to Europe from the Silk Road, and developed and improved rapidly in Europe.

By the 11th century, blankets had been used in manual paper making in Europe. Blankets were used in paper production to introduce paper and to extrude wet paper sheets to remove moisture. Manual paper making is to make the fiber evenly distributed on the mold frame with mesh as the bottom after being fished, so as to form a wet paper page. After most of the water is filtered and removed, the mold is pressed on the blanket, and the wet paper page is transferred from the mold or "led" to (transferred) the blanket. Then squeeze the wet sheet and blanket together to remove the excess water, and finally air dry the sheet.

The demand for blankets in the paper-making industry urges people to make special blankets for paper-making, so people get inspiration from the production methods of daily blankets and use similar methods (technologies) to make early special blankets for paper-making. At the same time of popularizing the advanced papermaking technology in Europe, the manufacturing technology of papermaking blanket was introduced all over the world. Since then, papermaking and blankets have an inseparable relationship. But the invention of papermaking was more than 1000 years earlier than the production and use of blankets.

Early paper blankets were made of animal hair, such as wool. Wool is characterized by high elastic recovery rate, good hygroscopic property and good cashmere shrinkage when it is wet. In the 18th century, the woolen blanket was shrunk or felt. After this treatment, the woolen blanket was strong and soft, which could absorb water quickly and drain water easily. It was mainly used for hand-made paper making.

In 1799, 30-50 years after Louis Robert invented the first paper machine, hand-made paper had basically disappeared. For the first time, the wool factory specially made a single blanket for the paper factory, and then sewed the two ends together to make a circular blanket for the paper machine. Since then, the special blanket for mechanical paper-making was born.

By the second half of the 19th century, some companies began to produce circular blankets, but at that time the design of blankets was relatively simple. With the higher and higher quality requirements of paper in the printing industry, the printing performance of paper surface has become more and more important. In order to meet this requirement, the yarn and new weaving methods used in blanket weaving have been studied and improved accordingly. The western industrial revolution has also promoted the further development of the paper industry, and the improvement of the structure and equipment of the paper machine has also put forward new requirements for blankets. In 1911, people used chemical treatment for the first time to improve the service life of blankets, and constantly improved the structure and production technology of blankets to adapt to the continuous increase of paper machine speed.

In the 1950s, man-made synthetic fibers (i.e. chemical fibers) developed during the Second World War were used as raw materials for paper-making blankets. The ultimate goal was to reduce the use of ordinary wool, thereby reducing production costs and improving the performance of blankets. The most commonly used synthetic fibers are nylon and polyester, which have different properties. Nylon has the characteristics of alkali resistance and acid resistance, while polyester has the characteristics of acid resistance, alkali resistance and high temperature resistance. Both of them have the properties of chlorine resistance and anti microbial. The production practice shows that the blankets made of these synthetic fibers are superior to those made of pure wool. When wool is used together with synthetic fiber, it is beneficial to improve the strength and durability of the blanket. In the early stage, the content of synthetic fiber in the press blanket is about 30%, which is mainly because these synthetic fibers can not be felt or shrunk by traditional methods at that time.

During this period, the paper-making blankets are all traditional woven felts, which are the first generation of paper-making blankets. Their production methods are made by spinning, weaving, shrinking, pulling and other processes. The structural feature of the woven blanket is that it is weaved by the spinning in the longitudinal and transverse direction, and then it is shrunk by mechanical method to make the final finished product. The fiber composition is mainly wool, with a small amount of synthetic fiber.

By 1960, the emergence of the needle punched on base felt made it possible to make blanket by mechanical method, and the content of synthetic fiber in the production increased year by year. By 1970, the average content of synthetic fibers in paper press blankets was the lowest