Blade Master

 Doctor Blades are actually an essential part of commercial printing. While there are many methods of printing, there are two predominant methods that use Doctor Blades. They are called Rotogravure (gravure), and Flexographic (flexo) printing.

 In both Gravure and Flexo printing, the doctor blade is technically a metering blade. The word doctor is thought to come from German roots, where it was first called a “ductor blade”, meaning to draw across a surface. The doctor blade meters (controls) the amount of liquid ink that is deposited on a printing cylinder. It does this by wiping the cylinder surface of excess ink while the cylinder rotates in an ink supply. While gravure and flexo are totally different processes, the blade meters the ink in both.