The long life doctor blade has a hardened coating that reduces friction coefficients and extends blade life. This coating plays a key role in preventing printing defects such as soning(hazing), streaking, drag-outs, bleeding, cylinder banding and chrome wear. It provides clean doctoring, increases blade and cylinder life and is corrosion-risistant. Because of its excellent performance, this design results in: reduced drag-outs; increased blade life; increased cylinder life; reduces downtime; reduced print waste.