How Doctor Blades Provide Superior Ink Metering

The Provident Group sells the very best in Doctor Blades. Each blade offers the perfect combination of straightness and flatness, edge finish, surface finish, strength and wear resistance.

For anyone not familiar, the benefits of Doctor Blades lie in their excellent tensile strength and spring-like qualities, a hardness that allows maximum metering, and a wear resistance that lasts much longer than other blades.

Offering an assortment of blade materials, Doctor Blades can be used for all ink metering applications.  The list of materials these blades are made from includes carbon steel (blue and white), alloy steels which are very wear resistant with laser hardened tips, stainless steel, ceramic, plastics (UHMW, acetyl,  and polyester compounds) and composites made from fiberglass and carbon fiber.  With such a variety of materials it’s very important to ensure the blade used is the right one for your application.

In addition to offering the range of materials for the blades themselves, Doctor Blades come in a variety of tip shapes to achieve the utmost in ink metering.  These shapes include square for plastic containment and back up steel blades; round for metal metering; beveled on the UHMV plastic, metal, composites and stiffer plastics; and single and double stepped.  The single stepped are best when a thinner tip and stiffer body are needed and the double stepped are used when the job calls for a stiffer blade and narrower contact angle.

If your job calls for the thicker blades to be used it’s important to note these blades increase the blade angle because they deflect less ink in the metering process.  These thicker blades also increase the wear area and spread the load which is a great benefit to offer a more complete metering process.  It is also very important to remember to change your Doctor Blades whenever the CPI is changed, and care needs to be taken in handling the blades as they are extremely sharp.

With the use of Doctor Blades for your ink metering you will experience a result better than any other on the market.  Be sure to visit the Provident Group and choose from a complete selection of premium doctor blades available in a variety of alloys and tips.

For a more visual lesson, watch Tim Allen of the Provident Group and Randy Carter of Anderson & Vreeland show off new printing innovations & technology from Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisconsin. The video below discusses the most important components of an enclosed, chambered doctor blade system and how to utilize this technology in your plant.

 

For further education on Doctor Blades, browse through the “Doctor Blade Metering: The What and How in Anilox Ink Metering” presentation below.

 

About Provident Group

Provident is the leading manufacturer and distributor of doctor blades and end seals specifically designed for flexo. Over 20 years of flexo press operation gives us direct involvement in ink metering and containment to address your specific production requirements. We clearly understand the intricacies of flexo printing. We offer the most comprehensive selection of premium-quality doctor blades as the exclusive master distributor partner of Prime Blade – the Swedish doctor blade, throughout the U.S. and Canada. Supplying the best doctor blades and end seals is only part of our mission. We are a service-oriented supplier that has grown with the industry we serve by offering superior materials and high-technology manufacturing. Better products and better service. That’s the winning combination you get from PROVIDENT.

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