Saturday 9 January 2016

A Sneak Peak on Chamber Seals

The flexographic printing process has already become the most desirable way to print the same pattern repeatedly.  This is perfect for making wrapping paper, candy bar wrappers, labels and for printing barcodes.  This process of printing has become much more than just printing on paper though.  Flexographic printing can be used for printing on cardboard for box material, it can be used to print on cellophane to create the wrappers for the food we eat and it’s made to create the packaging material for many of the items we buy at the store.  If you purchase an item that is produces in large quantities its highly likely the packaging was produced using the flexographic printing process.

What does this have to do with chamber seals?

The chambered doctor blade seals are the quiet hero of the flexographic printing process.  This is a process of printing that moves a material to be printed on called the substrate through the doctor chamber across the anilox roller where the plate is placed that carries the impression to be printed.  Inside the chamber ink is infused and metered by one blade while be extracted by the other but if the chamber seals were not in place the ink would escape the chamber and cause an enormous mess.

What materials is chambered doctor blade seals made from?

There is a variety of materials including polyethylene, felt, crosslink materials and neoprene.  These chamber seals are also made in a variety of shapes and sizes in order to handle the job at hand which is to keep the ink from leaving the doctor chamber to become a problem.  It’s important to keep the entire process of the flexographic printing as clean as possible because the set up time is longer than you might expect it to be.  With the right chamber seals in place the presses can continue to operate efficiently much longer than without them.

To know more information about chamber seals please visit the website.

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