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SANDVIK USES STRIP MAKING EXPERTISE FOR DOCTOR BLADES
Control and balancing of the steel’s metallurgy results in strip steel with consistent properties. Specially developed hardening and slitting processes mean an almost stress free material and process control in manufacturing ensures a high degree of straightness, flatness, high strength and wear resistance. The strip steel for doctor blades is delivered with very smooth, burr free edges. Edge shaving techniques have been developed over many years and can be adapted to meet customer specifications. Doctor blade producers grind their own lamella edges or use Sandvik’s rounded edges for flexographic presses. There are two carbon steel material grades, Sandvik 20C and 20C2. For more corrosive environments, such as arises with the increased use of water based inks, there are two stainless steel grades, Sandvik Chromflex 7C27Mo2 and Sandvik 13C26. Stainless grades resist oxidation and emit less contaminants into the ink system. For more wear intensive environments or for long series printing, Sandvik recommends that printing companies should use doctor blades made from Sandvik 20C2 and Sandvik 13C26 and gain the higher productivity benefits from avoiding the unplanned stops due to worn blades, that give rise to printing defects. Also, further increases in productivity can be obtained by using the high performance Sandvik 20C2 and 13C26 grades for the base colours when running CMYK. This avoids blade changes during four colour runs and restricts changes to house colours between shorter print runs. For water based inks and CMYK set up, Sandvik 13C26 is recommended to avoid corrosion issues. The choice of material grade depends mainly on customer emphasis and requirements for levels of wear and corrosion resistance. If printing companies purchase blades with different characteristics from doctor blade manufacturers, they can tailor the blade set up to optimize blade economy and ensure blade productivity though choosing the right steel grade for particular printing circumstances.
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