Process for manufacturing shutter screen blades

A process for manufacturing shutter screen blades comprising the steps of:

• providing a continuous longitudinal strip of plastic sheet material and feeding said sheet material in the longitudinal direction thereof;
• performing a first punching operation on said sheet material in a press apparatus to form in said sheet material partially cutout portions with an outline in the form of shutter screen blades having a longer dimension and a shorter dimension, said cutout portions being formed with said longer dimension extending transversely to said longitudinal direction of said plastic strip and with parts of each outline retained connected with said strip material at points proximate both ends of said longer dimension;
• coating said plastic strip including said cutout portions with a metal layer by passing said strip through a metal plating operation;
• drying said metal coating by passing said sheet material through drying apparatus, said sheet material being held under a longitudinal tension during said drying step;
• and
• performing a second punching operation to separate said shutter screen blades from said strip by severing said parts of said outlines which were retained connected with said strip material after said first punching operation thereby to separate said shutter screen blades from said strip.