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MDC Doctor Blades for gravure
General
There are a large variety of presses, substrates and applications in packaging gravure yielding different printing problems. The most common problems are toning, drag-outs, bleeding, streaking or chrome wear (banding). Because a number of factors can contribute to different printing problems, MDC manufactures a wide variety of Doctor Blades to meet your specifications and applications.
It is common in the Gravure packaging industry to use a variety of very abrasive inks. This can lead to drag-outs and excess blade and cylinder wear. The durable MDC LONGLIFE blade (3 to 5 times longer blade life) is used successfully for such inks and can be used for multiple printing jobs, reducing expensive downtime. MDC SOFT blade is used successfully for coating and laminating applications.
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| MDC LONGLIFE |
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The lamella has a hardened coating to significantly lengthen the life of the blade. It is the best choice to fight printing defects, provides clean doctoring, resists corrosion and greatly reduces drag-outs, and waste levels are lowered significantly. Less blade changes are needed, resulting in reduced downtime and the need for re-chroming / re-engraving cylinders is also decreased. These blades are also used successfully when metering UV coatings. |
| MDC ULTRALIFE |
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This Doctor Blade has a special designed coating to prevent hazing and streaks, while maintaining many of the exciting characteristics of the MDC LONGLIFE doctor blade, such as enhanced blade life and preventing drag-outs. |
| MDC STANDARD |
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The award winning blade with a consistent tip thickness. The contact area remains unchanged throughout the entire life of the blade, therefore, no changes in tonal value or gradation occur due to wear. The unique polished contact zones guarantees a quick start-up without any streaks. | |
| MDC BEVEL |
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The configuration of the blade edge adds to the stability of the blade tip with minimum wear and the sharp blade edge allows for a clean wipe. Due to the stiffer tip, these blades are more resistant to tip breakage. Bevel blades with angles between 4° to 15° are used for short runs only and are commonly used when printing process colors.
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| MDC SOFT |
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This blade is made of carbon doctor blade steel and is coated with nickel-based material. The coating is resistant to corrosive inks and lacquers and protects the contact zone from oxidation. During operation, the coating flows into the contact zone and can cover small damages to the blade edge caused by contam-ination in the ink, therefore reducing toning and streaking. MDC SOFT blades are used successfully for coating applications. | |
| MDC ANGLE BLADE |
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This new blade is used in Gravure presses where an optimal blade angle can not be achieved. The ANGLE BLADE provides a spring-load tension while maintaining a high contact angle. This unique design ensures smooth pressure and maintains the correct blade angle. Reduced pressure prolongs cylinder life, eliminates chatter and minimizes streaking. |
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Standard Dimensions & Specs:
MDC Doctor Blades are available in widths of 8 mm (0.32") upto 80mm (3.20") .
Standard blade thickness: 0.15 mm (0.006"), 0.20mm (0.008").
Blades are available in pre-cut sizes of any length or in coils of 50 m, 100 m and 200 m.
The recommended blade tip dimensions are:
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| Lamella Thickness |
Lamella Length |
Bevel Angle |
| 60-75micron |
1.0-1.3mm |
4°-45° （Bevel Blade） |
| 80-90micron |
1.3-1.7mm |
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| 90-120micron |
1.7mm |
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# Special blade sizes and requirements are considered upon request.
Laquers & Lamination
All blades listed (above) can also be used in coating units for Laquers and Lamination. Coating units are equipped with fully engraved steel or chrome rollers. Either doctor blades or metering rollers are used to control the coating film thickness. In general, the blade dimensions and the blade set-ups are the same as in Packaging gravure printing.
Other MDC Doctor Blades available
MDC STAINLESS BLADE MDC ONE-STEP BLADE MDC COMBI BLADE
MDC FLEXOLIFE BLADE MDC NON-METALLIC BLADE MDC PUNCHED BLADE
MDC MULTI BLADE |
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MDC Doctor Blades for Flexo Printing
General
Modern flexo presses are equipped with an anilox roller/doctor blade combination as an inking system. Flexo printing presses are available in many different sizes from 200 mm (8”) to over 4 meter (157”). While single reverse-angle blade systems are used for the smaller presses, the midsize and larger presses are normally equipped with enclosed doctor blade systems. Printing speed also varies from 50 m/min. to 450 m/min. (160 ft /min. to 1450 ft /min.). The wiping doctor blade is always applied in a reverse angle between 30 ° -40 ° .Due to the abrasive surface of ceramic anilox rollers, minimal doctor blade pressure is always recommended. Equally important for good doctor blade life is the relationship between cell con-igurations (shape/count) and blade tip thickness. MDC SOFT blades have been used very successfully in achieving longer blade life, in most cases 2–3 times higher than most doctor blades. For high viscous inks (UV inks) or abrasive inks (metallic inks) the use of the MDC LONGLIFE blade can increase the blade life up to 10 times.
The flexo industry uses mainly 0.20 mm (0.008”) thick blades, in some cases 0.15 mm (0.006”). Enclosed blade systems do not require a back-up blade. Based on the application, lamella, bevel or straight blades with rounded edges, like the MDC FLEXOLIFE blade, are used to meter the ink. For high quality process printing, the label printing industry uses a lamella as thin as 75 microns. As a rule, a thinner blade edge allows for a cleaner wipe.
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| MDC SOFT |
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This blade is made of carbon doctor blade steel and is coated with nickel-based material. The coating is resistant to corrosive inks and lacquers and protects the contact zone from oxidation. Especially for high pH inks, this blade significantly reduces score lines in flexo applications. |
| MDC FLEXOLIFE |
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The blade with radius edges on both sides. This economical blade is specifically designed for flexo applications. It provides extended blade life while reducing anilox wear. Can be used with solvent or waterbased inks. |
| MDC LONGLIFE |
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The lamella has a hardened coating to significantly lengthen the life of the blade. This is the best doctor blade choice used to fight printing defects since it provides clean doctoring, resists corrosion, reduces steel contamination of the ink and significantly lowers waste levels. Less blade changes are needed, resulting in reduced downtime. | |
| MDC STANDARD |
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The award winning blade with a consistent tip thickness. The contact area remains unchanged throughout the entire life of the blade, therefore, no changes in tonal value or gradation occur due to the wear. The special polished contact zones of these doctor blades guarantee a quick start-up without problems. |
| MDC BEVEL |
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The configuration of the blade edge minimizes wear-in time and the sharp blade edge allows for a clean wipe. Due to the stiffer tip, these blades are somewhat more resistant to tip breakage. Bevel blades with angles between 4° to 15° are commonly used for process inks and short runs. | |
| MDC NON-METALLIC |
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Non-metallic blades are available for specific printing applications and as containment blades in enclosed doctor blade chamber systems. There are many materials to choose from, such as UHMW, Fiberglas com posite and Polyester. These blades come in a variety of thickness and widths. MDC representatives are available to assist in evaluation and selection of the correct blades for all applications. |
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Standard Dimensions & Specs:
MDC Doctor Blades are available in widths of 8 mm (0.30") upto 80mm(3.20") .
Standard blade thickness: 0.15 mm (0.006") ,0.20mm(0.008").
Blades are available in pre-cut sizes of any length or in coils of 50 m, 100 m and 200 m.
The recommended blade tip dimensions are: | |
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| CellCount |
Lamella Thickness |
Lamella Length |
| 200-600 l/inch |
125 micron |
1.7mm |
| 600-1150 l/inch |
100 micron |
1.3mm |
| >1150 l/inch |
80 micron |
1.3mm |
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# Special blade sizes and requirements are considered upon request.
Other MDC Doctor Blades available:
MDC ULTRALIFE MDC STAINLESS BLADE MDC MULTIBLADE
MDC COMBI BLADE MDC ANGLE BLADE MDC PUNCHED BLADE
MDC ONE STEP BLADE
For more information, quickly download the fact sheets of our various doctor blade types from the column on the right.
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