VBN’s Vibenite 150 PM steel improves doctor blade manufacturing
January 17, 2023
VBN Components, Uppsala, Sweden, has collaborated with PrimeBlade Sweden, to produce a number of punches and dies built from VBN’s Vibenite® 150 Powder Metallurgy steel.
The tools are used for die-cutting doctor blades, also known as duct blades or squeegees, used to remove excess paint from anilox rolls in the printing process in the packaging industry. The blades reportedly perform around 50% better than those made from traditional PM cutting steel.
“The doctor blade steel is made from 95% recycled material and can be recycled again after usage in a circular system,” stated Jimmy Nyström, Marketing Manager at PrimeBlade. “The doctor blades are of the absolute highest quality and meet all the demands of precise tolerances. Naturally, the die-cutting needs to be at the same level, which is perfectly met by Vibenite.”
Vibenite 150 is a multi-purpose wear-resistant PM steel with a high level of toughness and fatigue resistance. It has a fine-grained Fe matrix and a hardness of approximately 58–64 HRC (600–780 HV). It is well suited to functional prototypes, parts difficult to machine, tool holders, cold work applications that place demands on both wear resistance and toughness, plastic materials processing tools and wear parts.
