Plastic doctor blades are an advantageous alternative to steel doctor blades for a number of flexo applications
Characteristics of plastic doctor blades
While traditionally a steel doctor blade has been the first choice in flexo printing, plastic doctor blades are becoming more and more popular. Why is that?
- Plastic blades are corrosion-free by nature
They can be used for all ink types. That makes the stock keeping and daily operations easier because the operators do not need to put in different blade materials for different ink type - Plastic is extremely wear resistant
With increasing printing speeds and need for efficiency to remain competitive, blade lifetime is a very important factor. Plastic blades have better anti-frictional properties towards the anilox roller than long life steel options like for example ceramic-coated steel blades, which is also beneficial for the lifespan of the anilox roller - Plastic doctor blades are safer to handle
A used steel doctor blade is razor sharp and has already caused many injuries in the pressroom. Especially with wide web applications, the blade handling gets more delicate. A plastic blade does not develop such sharp edges as a steel blade, so it is beneficial for work safety to use plastic doctor blades
For a number of applications, plastic blades are an ideal choice:
In general, plastic blades are perfect for printing applications with simple to medium quality print images.
- Corrugated Post Print
- Line Printing
- Full surface printing or coating
- For use as containment blade in any printing press with chambered doctor blades
AGSflexo plastic doctor blades: Polyester, UHMW and more options made in Celle
AGSflexo offers a range of different plastic doctor blades. Our polyBLADE series includes materials such as polyester and UHMW, our fiberBLADE series are fiber reinforced doctor blades. Since we produce the blades in-house on an order-related basis, we can accommodate individual requirements such as varying bevel angles with short lead times.
At the same time, we put much effort into further developing our products. We are for example looking into new blade tip characteristics and material formulas in order to better accommodate the needs of high-resolution halftone printing. Prototypes have to pass strict tests on our in-house testing unit before they go into beta-testing in the field.
