Benton Graphics, a doctor blade manufacturer based in Trenton, NJ, USA, has announced that it has completely recovered from the fire caused by a lightning strike in June of 2012 that shut the company down for over half a year.

“It was a long, difficult road getting up and running again with many setbacks. Though faced with adversity, we were able to improve our processing and get a little ‘greener’ by eliminating acetone completely from our operation,” says Michael A. Valachovic, Benton’s CEO.

The most harmful chemical Benton now uses in the production of its doctor blades is common table salt. 

“We owe so many of our distributors and suppliers a debt of gratitude as they helped us source blades for our customers and tried to keep everyone informed on our progress while we were rebuilding,” Valachovic says, thanking, in particular, All Printing Resources, Anderson & Vreeland, CT Graphics Arts, Delorey Solutions, DICAR Incorporated, Harris and Bruno, Printco Industries, Earnest Green and Son Canada, Prime Axes in Japan, ES Print in Moscow Russia and Oryong Korea LTD, and its main steel supplier Bohler Uddeholm. “We thank you all for everything you did to help us get back up and running. We’d also like to thank so many of our direct end users for sticking with us and coming back as soon as we reopened. Benton thanks all of you so much.”