Chapter 9

Paper, Fiber,
and Printing
Processes
PREPARED BY:
RONNEL V. GONDRA
ALJHON GALULU
Your best quote that reflects your
approach… “It’s one small step for
man, one giant leap for mankind.”

- Neil Armstrong
Paper
A material composed of thin sheets of matted or felted
fibers, usually of cellulose. Paper is used as a base for
writing and printing, for packaging and wrapping, as a filter
medium and, in heavier sheets, as a raw material for
manufacturing furniture and other products and as a
building material.
Paper-making Processes

a.) Raw Material

b.) Paper making from wood (by machine)
Raw Materials
Wood fibers make up the dominant raw material for paper. Many
other fibers are also composed of cellulose and may be used in
making paper. Natural fibers from plants other than wood, recycled
wastepaper of various kinds and recycled paper board are also
used. Fibers from line, cotton or other scrap rags are
ingredients in finer papers and, before the development of
wood pulp processes, were a major ingredient in many papers.
Paper making from wood (by machine)
step by step

1.) Trees are harvested and the logs are transported to a pulp or paper mill. 2.)
Logs are cut to a convenient length and are debarked. 3.) The
wood is converted to pulp by one of several methods. 4.) The
pulp is refined. 5.) The pulp
is washed and screened to remove foreign materials, and often is bleached.
6.) Some pulps go through
a beating process to further process the fibers.
7.) Fillers, sizing agents, dyes and adhesives may be added to the pulp to improve
properties for the end use of the paper.
Paper making from wood (by machine)
step by step
8.) A slurry of pulp and water is spread on a porous surface; excess water drains off.
9.) A continuous web of pulp,
supported by a wire mesh or other porous conveyor, passes a series of suction devices and rolls that
remove more water from the pulpy sheet, and then press it to a smooth finish.
10.) The sheet passes
between a large number of steam-heated rolls that dry the sheet.
11.) The paper web then may undergo “calendaring”, that is,
pressing it between rolls to provide a smoother “machine” finish
12.) The completed paper is slit and wound onto
reels or cut to length and stacked, in both cases to prepare it for further processing into useful
products or material.
 Harvest Trees
Transport to Mill

Cut Logs and Debark

Convert to Pulp Convert to Pulp Convert to Pulp

Mechanically Chemically Semi - Chemically

Refine Pulp

Wash, Screen, &

Bleach Pulp
 Form Sheet
Beat Fibers

Remove Excess
Water - Press
Add Filers,
Dye,Sizing, etc.

Dry Sheet Fourdrinier Machine

Calendar(Smooth
Sheet)

Silt Sheet and Wind

on Reel

Block diagram of the operation sequence for making paper from wood pulp.
Debarking Woods
Is the process of removing barks from woods.
Pulping of Wood
Is the separation of wood fibers from one
another so that they absorb water, swell and
become flexible.
Mechanical Wood Pulping
Makes use of large, heavy duty, grinding wheels
that reduce pulp logs to fiber. They are then
transferred automatically to the grinding machines
which, with large aluminum oxide or silicon carbide
grinding wheels, reduce the wood to a pulp.
Chemical Pulping of Woods
Used chemical means to dissolve between the Wood
fibers. Both batch and continuous processes are used. The
digester is heated with heat exchanger coils or by direct
injection of steam. Cooking temperatures are typically 320
to 460°F(160 to 235°C) at pressures of 115 psi (800 kPa)
for1/2 to 2 hours.
Semi Chemical Pulping of Woods
Preparatory operations are approximately the
same as those followed when providing chips for
chemical pulping. The chemical treatment phase uses
a pressurized reactor but is somewhat milder
than full chemical pulping.
Refining
Is the disc operation described above as part of the semi-chemical
pulping of wood. The same basic process is also used when baled
pulp is shipped to another factory that completes the papermaking
process. In this case, the pulp is with water, is placed in pulpers
,machines with disc refiners. The operation is frequently
performed at room temperature and the disc blades are smaller
than those used for semi-chemical pulping. Recycled waste paper
may also be added.
Removing Foreign Material
The pulp from the chemical and semi-chemical
processes listed above is first washed to remove the
processing chemicals. Then, debris, “shives”
(unfibered wood chips), bark, undigested knots and
other foreign materials are removed from the
pulp using a series of screens.
Beating
Is an operation that compresses and works the fibers. It
enables water to penetrate better, causing the fibers to swell
and become more flexible. The action separates and frays the
fine filaments of the fiber so that they bond together more
securely. The result is paper with higher strength, greater
density and stiffness, and lower porosity.
Bleaching and Washing
Bleaching is a multistage process, especially when kraft paper is
processed, since kraft is dark in color and not easily bleached. Four to
eight operations are typically involved. This is followed by a reaction
period, that may last from one-half to several hours, and washing to
remove lignin and residual chemicals from the pulp. In current
bleaching practice1, the first step is chlorination of the unbleached
pulp, effected by mixing chlorine gas with the pulp at a temperature
of 70 to 80°F (21 to 27°C).
Making Paper from Pulp
The first step on transforming a slurry of pulp in water in paper
involves the slurry evenly on a porous surface. The paper may then
be slit and sheared into sheets. These operations have been
performed for centuries on a hand basis but except for hobby,
laboratory and artwork, all current production takes place on large,
complex machines which produce as many as 300 tons of paper per
day.
Fordrinier and Cylindrical Paper
making machines
Transform a dilute slurry of fiber and additives into a roll of paper in
several steps. As a first step, the cellulose fibers, mixed liberally
with water (more than 99% water),are collected on either a flat
forming screen, Some Fourdrinier machines have two layers of wire
mesh conveyor and the sheet is formed between them. This
arrangement aids in removing water from the top as well as the
bottom of the web .Such machines are called, “twin-wire machines”.
Finishing (Converting)
Paper from a paper-making machine normally must
undergo one or more further operations to improve its
condition or change its configuration for its intended
use. There are two kinds of paper converting operations:
1. Wet Converting
Operations are performed on paper from rolls to improve the paper’s
printability and opacity or to provide gloss or greater smoothness. Coating,
impregnating and laminating are typical wet converting operations. Sizing,
the operation that prevents ink from penetrating and spreading in the
naturally absorbent cellulosic fibers of paper, is a major finishing operation.
Coating and sizing with starch, clay and glue - with additional calendering
-provide an excellent surface for printing fine halftone illustrations.
Colored paper is made with dyes that are absorbed by the pulp fibers.
2. Dry Converting
Changes the paper from rolls into a more useful
form by slitting, sheeting and stacking, or forming
and glueing it into such products as envelopes, bags,
boxes, paper plates and cups, tubes, corrugated
cartons, writing pads and coasters.
Water Dispersion Coating
Is per-formed either as part of the papermaking operation between
drying sections of the machine, or as a separate operation later,
using previously made paper rolls as raw material. The water
dispersion that is used contains some pigment or filler (calcium
carbonate, clay, titanium dioxide) to provide uniform distribution of
the material and an adhesive binder(latex, starch or a synthetic
material) to bond the coating to the paper.
Sizing
Is material that prevents ink and other aqueous liquids from
soaking into the paper. One common sizing material is rosin
which is applied to the fiber as a dispersion with soap and
water. The amount of rosin, after application, is from 1 to
5 percent of the weight of the fiber. Alum ,or aluminum
sulfate (Al2(SO4)3), causes the precipitate from the
dispersion and adhere to the surfaces of the fibers.
Filling
Fillers are incorporated in paper to increase white
brightness and surface. Many different compounds can
be used: calcium carbonate(CaCO3), kaolin (clay), titanium
dioxide (TiO2), zinc oxide, zinc sulfide, calcium sulfate, talc
and barium sulfate. As with rosin sizing, alum may be
used to provide an attraction of the filler to the fibers.B3.
Paper Making from rags and
other textile fibers
Clean rags, textile mill cuttings, garment and other sewing scrap,
short fibers from raw cotton processing and flax fibers are used in
making finer grades of paper.
Operations involved in processing
baled rags are as follows:
1.) Bales are opened and rags are threshed mechanically.
2.) Threshed rags are manually sorted to remove rubber, synthetic fibers,
metal, papers and plastic-coated rags.
3.) Rags are cut into small pieces.
4.) Magnetic rolls remove any extraneous pieces of iron and steel.
5.) Rags are cooked in a dilute alkali solution [sodium carbonate(soda ash -
Na2CO3), or caustic soda (NaOH) with lime (calcium oxide - CaO), and
detergents or wet-ting agents]. Cooking, with steam heat, lasts for 3 to10 hours to
remove grease, wax, fillers and oils.
Operations involved in processing baled
rags are as follows:
6.) The rags are washed.
7.) They are beaten mechanically, as described in paragraph B2f above, to shorten and fray the
fibers and increase their tendency to swell when wet, all of which enhance the bonding of fibers to
each other in the paper.
8.) Fillers, sizing material and colorants are added to the mixture as desired to
provide added body and weight to the paper.
9.) Additional beating with a Jordan engine, a machine with a pair of concentric
conical surfaces containing knives, may take place. One cone rotates Inside the other and the slurry
of rag fibers flow between them, producing further separation and fraying of the fibers.
10.) Subsequent operations to create paper from the fibers are essentially the
same as those described above when wood pulp is the raw material.
Paper making from synthetic Fibers
Synthetic fibers - nylon, polyesters, rayon, acrylics and glass - and
blends of them with conventional pulp - are used to make
specialty papers used infiltration and where chemical and water
resistance and dimensional stability are important. Synthetic
fibers are bonded with adhesives instead of by the natural cohesion
of cellulose fibers. Otherwise, they could be processed on
conventional papermaking machines.
Paper making from Waste Paper
(Paper recycling)
Waste paper comes in several categories: corrugated cartons,
newsprint, white business paper and mixed paper. Coated papers
used in packaging, magazines and advertising applications are more
difficult to recycle and are processed separately until the coating
material is removed. Such coatings include various plastics,
metallic foils, asphalt, synthetic adhesives and certain inks. There
are two basic pulp preparation processes for wastepaper:
There are two basic pulp preparation
processes for wastepaper:
1.) those that involve ink removal -from bales is inspected
and fed into a pulping tank

2.) those that do not include de-inking- is processed

similarly to that requiring de-inking except that chemicals
required to dissolve and disperse the ink are not required.
Manufacture of Various Paper
Grades
Paper-making processes vary, depending on the
grade of paper produced and its application. Key
factors are the type of pulp used, the paper making
Bond Paper
Is high quality paper used for currency, insurance
policies, legal documents, letterheads, advertising
pieces and certificates.
Newsprint
Is made primarily from machine-ground pulp. A
common practice is to use 75% mechanical
(machine ground) pulp and25% chemical pulp.
Paperboard
Is heavy board, 0.012 in (0.3 mm)or more in
thickness and 0.66 oz/ft2(200 g/M2) or ore in weight.
It is used for paper boxes, formed food trays, paper
plates, corrugated shipping containers, boards used
in electrical and building applications, and book
cover
Sanitary Paper
Include paper towels, toilet tissue, paper handkerchiefs, and
paper napkins. These products are made from recycled paper
or a blend of mechanical pulp, bleached kraft and sulfite
pulps. They are processed with a minimum amount of
finishing additives except for plastics which are added to
increase wet strength. One operation common on these
papers.
Kraft Paper
Is the brown paper used for paper bags and
corrugated paper cartons. It is usually made in
heavier thicknesses. Kraft is produced from softwood
pulp, usually from pine trees using the kraft or
sulfate chemical pulp preparation process
described above in paragraph B2b2.
Vulcanized Fiber
Is a fibrous material made by treating paper pulp,
derived from recycled cot-ton waste, with zinc
chloride. The zinc chloride is later bleached out.