Page 242 - Training 2019

SQUEEGEE BLADES
Squeegee Blades have different shore hardness for different applications. The harder the
shore hardness the less ink will be transferred. The wipe will be cleaner. There are universal
colour coding for almost all screen printing applications and they are available in common
sizes and profiles. The different profiles are used on bottle printing and automated
production lines. Always have a catalogue on hand when calling on screen printers
to identify their shore hardness and blade profiles.

THREE TYPES OF SQUEEGEE BLADES
 MONOFLEX is a single squeegee Printan rubber that comes in 7 different shore
hardness and colours.
 BIFLEX is two different shore hardness laminated together. This is to add stability and
strength to the blade.
 TRIFLEX is three layers of Printan rubber that is laminated together for strength and
stability. The white Printan material is 90 shore hard and that is placed in the middle
to give the strength to the structure.
 These combinations can be made up to suite the screen printer’s job application.

PROFILE OF SQUEEGEE BLADES
There are quite a few different types of blade profiles that are used on inline screen printing
machines. The profile and shore hardness will influence the wipe and how much ink will be
transferred. The bevel on the blade is critical to the wipe. The blades that fit into inline
machines are about 20 x 5 mm and are not very flexible. So, the shore hardness and the
profile plays an important part in transferring the correct amount of ink across.

ATTRIBUTES:
 Stabilized components blade
 Polyurethane insolubly bonded to the carrier
 Defined plan parallel surface ground print side and edge
 Excellent surface characteristics of print edge
 RKS blades are delivered to you ready to print.

ADVANTAGES:
 Higher speed in print
 Excellent quality in flat and fine print
 Significantly longer in print
 Significantly longer service life
 Outstanding material qualities.

BENEFITS:
 Reduced maintenance
 Cost saving through less need to change blades and print stops
 Increase productivity.

SILKSCREEN AND SQUEEGEES TRAINING MANUAL 14
Updated - 24 June 2019