Page 111 - Training 2019

FLEXOGRAPHY DO’S & DON’TS

Do Don’t
Mount the blade with the ground side Mount the blade with the ground side
/ labelled side facing into the chamber. /labelled side facing the anilox
Handle used doctor blades with extreme care to Handle used doctor blades without extreme
avoid cutting injuries. care.
Keep the blade inside its box until just before Let the blade lie around unprotected
mounting in the press.
Keep the blade stored away from high humidity. Let the blade be exposed to high humidity for
long periods of time.
Use as little blade pressure as possible---------just Apply extra pressure on the blade to solve
enough to seal the chamber to the anilox. Check end leaking problems or printing problems----it may
seals and alignment to solve leaking problems. help temporarily, but it will soon make the
problem worse.
Keep the blade holder clean. Let old ink fasten onto and into the blade
holder.
Keep the anilox parallel to the blade holder, Let the blade holder and anilox come out of line
horizontally, vertically and depth-wise. with each other, in all three directions.
Fasten the doctor blade evenly to keep a uniform Use too little torque on fasteners so that the
extension out of the blade holder, and an even blade is loose in the blade holder, nor too much
torque of fasteners along the blade length. torque so that the blade is ”wavy” along its
length.
For printing with UV-inks, use a doctor blade that is Use a thin blade (< 0,25 mm) for UV-inks.
stiff enough, to avoid UV-spitting.
For flexo printing, use at least 0,20 mm blade Use a blade thinner than 0,20 mm for
thickness for doctoring. doctoring.
Use a containment bladet that is thin enough to Use a containment blade that is so stiff (thick)
allow sealing of the chamber. that it prevents ink from returning to the
chamber and causes thereby backdoctoring.
Use a magnet in the ink filters to trap worn-off steel Print without filters and magnets.
dust from the doctor blades.
Keep the ink protected (lid on the buckets) to Contaminate the ink.
prevent contamination.
Select blade tip to suit the anilox line-count. Use a blade tip that is too thin or thick for the
anilox line-count.

SWEDEV DO’S & DON’TS TRAINING MANUAL 7
Updated - 24 June 2019