Doctor blades

Flexo Concepts TruPoint doctor blades

Corrusystems offers a complete range of Flexo Concepts TruPoint doctor blades, designed for various applications, substrates, and desired print results. Because doctor blades greatly influence ink consumption, print quality, safety, and costs, we are happy to help you choose the right one.

Choosing the right doctor blade and the advantages of polymer over steel

In flexo printing, doctor blades play an important role in transferring ink from the anilox roll to the printing plate. A doctor blade removes excess ink from the smooth, non-engraved parts of the anilox roll. The right doctor blade creates an even ink distribution on the printing plate, and therefore a consistent and optimal printing image.

There are two types of doctor blades, which are both essential in flexo printing:

• Metering doctor blades: remove excess ink from the smooth, non-engraved parts of the anilox roll.
• Containing doctor blades: prevent ink from running out of the flexo chamber and prevents pollution of the ink.

Metering doctor blades

Even ink distribution and consistent print quality depend to a large extent on your metering doctor blade. What qualities to look out for here? (The answers explain why Flexo Concept exclusively develops polymer blades.)

• Durability
  The durability of the material and the continuous stiffness of a doctor blade is crucial. Most blades (steel in particular) lose 70% of their stiffness and start bending within the first hour of use. This so-called creeping results in less effective metering which forces press operators to keep increasing pressure to compensate for the bending. An additional disadvantage is the frequent replacement of the doctor blades.
• Safety
  Prevention of cutting injuries: steel doctor blades are responsible for a large number of injuries every year. Accidents with hands and wrists are the most expensive injuries in emergency departments, costing companies lots of money annually!
• Securing anilox lifetime
  Protect your anilox roll from scoring. A score line is a deep scratch destroying the cells around the roll’s surface, mostly caused by using steel doctor blades. Once the roll’s surface is scored, the defects will show in the printed image, resulting in costs for repair and/or replacement of the anilox roll, press downtime, lost substrate, and ink waste.

Containing doctor blades

Containing doctor blades prevent ink from running out of the flexo chamber. Choosing the right type of containing blade optimizes your flexo process significantly because of:

• Ink saving. A slightly flexible containing blade is effective enough at containing ink in the chamber, but thin and flexible enough to allow back doctored ink to return to the chamber.
• Prevention of soiled ink. Steel and non-flexible blades often result in back-doctoring. Because they don’t allow any ink back into the chamber, they account for ink accumulation at the back of the blade.
  In contrast, a thin polymer blade allows ink to return to the chamber. This prevents ink from building up on the back of the blade, then collecting at the end of the chamber and eventually ending up on the press, the sheets, and the floor.

TruPoint doctor blades range

Flexo Concepts TruPoint metering and containing doctor blades are durable, safe, and available for varying anilox line screens. All doctor blades can be cut to size and/or provided with a foam strip on the back.

TruPoint Green

TruPoint Orange

TruPoint Durapoint

TruPoint UHMW

TruPoint Polyester

Flexo Concepts TruPoint: innovating to meet high printing demands in corrugated printing

To meet today’s requirements of corrugated cardboard printing that increasingly includes detailed, multicolored designs, Flexo Concepts developed its Green doctor blade. This polymer blade has all the pros of a steel blade without the cons.

Flexo Concepts TruPoint Green allows consistent ink distribution over the entire surface, even on demanding substrates like corrugated board. Resulting in high print quality, preservation of the anilox roller, fewer accidents, and increased productivity. Specific polymers enable customized solutions that cater to a wide range of print designs.

We gladly assist you in selecting the right blade for your printing requirements. And of course, we offer samples of our doctor blades for testing purposes.