Anilox patterns and doctor blades for metering high viscosity pigmented inks

A chamber blade system maximizes ink flow at an anilox doctor blade by including a heating element adjacent the doctor blade to heat ink adjacent the blade. The heating element may be a heat strip next to an anilox doctor blade that heats the ink adjacent the doctor blade and temporarily reduces the ink viscosity to improve the flow of ink in the vicinity of the blade. Doctoring blades with a ceramic tip coating may be configured to allow a small amount of controlled ink flow through that can wet the lands thereby reducing the hydrodynamic back pressures and friction when trying to force the ink into anilox cells.