Dependence of Paper Properties on papermaking practices and Interrelationship among Properties

Dependence on Papermaking variables

Wood pulp fiber properties Pulping Process Non fibrous Additives Papermaking operations

Fiber Properties
Fiber Length : Very different fiber length (Soft/hardwood) Paper made from long fibered pulp is stronger. - Long fiber larger no. of fiber-fiber bonds Smaller fiber length difference (between unbeaten and beaten pulp) Long fibered pulp high tearing strength -More no. of fiber-fiber bonds per fiber need be broken for tearing Tensile, burst, double fold not very different

 Longer fibers tend to form more open sheet i.e. higher bulk, porosity. -Long fibers, if less flexible, will form less fiberfiber bonds per unit area Longer fibers have higher tendency to flocculate result in poor formation - To avoid, a small % of hardwood fibers is mixed in softwood fibers

Cell Wall Thickness (fiber sp. gravity)

Earlywood fibers have thin cell walls hence they are more flexible as compared to latewood fibers which have thicker cell walls and so are stiff.
Bulk Earlywood Latewood Lower Higher Burst Factor Higher Lower Breaking length Higher Lower Tear factor Lower Higher Air permeability Lower Higher

Thinner walled earlywood fibers collapse readily thereby promoting extensive fiberfiber bonding

Fiber Strength
Dependence of strength of paper does not directly depend upon fiber strength (partially because fiber-fiber bond strength is weaker than fiber strength) In a poorly bonded sheet, tear strength depends more upon fiber length rather than fiber strength. However, in strongly bonded sheets, fiber strength decides the tear strength. Among fibers of similar length and strength, coarser fibers produce sheets with high tear strength.

Pulping Process
Groundwood pulp
Higher amount of lignin whose water affinity is less. Less water absorption hence less fiber swelling. - Less fiber-fiber bonding area. Presence of lignin makes fiber more stiff. - Lesser number of fiber-fiber bond area Overall decrease in fiber-fiber bonding Paper is (i) low cost, (ii) less strong, (iii) more porous (iv) resilient and (v) has higher opacity. Suitable for newsprint. Yellows early (due to lignin) Short term utility of newspaper

 Kraft Pulp Lignin removal to a large extent. Fiber swells easily on beating. Fiber is flexible and on removal of water, it collapses. Increase in fiber-fiber bond area and number of fiberfiber bond areas also. Much higher strength, stiff but less opaque. Useful for Packaging paper and boards. On bleaching, brightness improves (less lignin) and yellows after a pretty long time. Useful for office paper, for printing/writing purpose

 Sulfite and bisulfite Pulps Easy beating pulps(High hemicellulose contentbetter affinity towards water). On beating, fibers open easily hence fiber surface area enhances very much resulting in much higher swelling. On removal of water, dense papers may be produced. Very low porosity, Low opacity Suitable for Oil/greaseproof paper

Carbohydrate content
Cellulose: Pulping process affects cellulose mainly by decreasing polymer chain length. If reduced beyond a certain extent, its strength falls down rapidly. Hemicellulose : Better accessibility to water hence swells fibers to great extent. - Play important role in interfiber bonding. - Improves beating response of pulp - Resulting pulp is stronger and more dense

 High hemicellulose content improves tensile, burst, double fold but reduces tear strength. Hardwood pulped by NSSC - High hemicellulose. Paper has high stiffness and suitable for corrugating medium Decrease of hemicellulose results in a paper with high tear, high opacity and softness. Alpha pulps (produced by hot alkali purification of sulfite pulps or prolonged acid sulfite cooking) - Essentially free of hemicellulose produce soft and opaque papers

Non fibrous Additives

Fillers : (For improving opacity) - Clay, natural calcium carbonate, talc, anatase, rutile Internal Sizing Agent (For providing water resistance) - Rosin, paraffin emulsions Dry Strength Agents (For increasing strength) - Cationic starch, polyacryl amides, natural gums

Fillers
Improves surface texture, smoothness and softness which in turn improves printing quality. Improvement in optical properties is governed by refractive index, particle size and reflectance of various fillers. Adverse effects are strength loss, abrasiveness of surface.

Name
Filler Clay Talc Rutile

Ref. Index
1.56 1.57 (TiO2) 2.70

Reflectance (%) (457 nm)

82 98 97 95 96

Particle Size (microns)

0.5 10 0.1 2.5 0.25 5 0.15 0.30 0.15 0.30

Natural CaCO3 1.65 Anatase (TiO2) 2.55

1. All fillers have > 90% reflectance of blue colour, except filler clay. Addition of all the above fillers will improve brightness w.r.to yellow pulp 2. Refractive index of all except filler clay is more than that of cellulose (1.56) Their addition will enhance number of interfaces having lesser critical angle. This will increase possibilities of total internal reflection hence of diffused reflectance. Opacity improves with the highest improvement by TiO2 3. For green light (570 nm), particles of size 0.27 microns (/2) shows maximum scattering thereby imrpoving diffused reflectance hence opacity. 4. Alignment of clay platelets parallel to paper surface produce smooth and glossy paper. Use of needle shaped calcium carbonate fillers reduces gloss.

 Adverse Effects : Presence of fillers reduces strength of paper. - Fillers not involved in bonding with cellulose - disrupts fiber-fiber bonds Fillers increase abrasiveness of paper surface - Wear of printing plates, paper machine wire and blunting cutter/trimmer knifes. - TiO2 is particularly abrasive.

Internal Sizing Agents

Table 8.9 page 138 Scott

Dry Strength Agents

Increase strength at a given degree of refining. Cationic starch, Polyacrylamides, gums

 Addition of these chemicals helps in attaining a given level of strength with less refining. The effect is termed chemical beating and chemicals are termed as beater adhesives. The effect is to increase fiber-fiber bonding strength without increasing relative bonding area (RBA). (beating enhances RBA also)

 The net effect is : Increased Tensile, burst etc. strength Improved - dimensional stability (deteriorates if RBA is more) - Tear strength (lesser bonds to be broken) - drainage (effect of less beating) - permeability (lesser RBA more pores) Beater Adhesives help achieve combination of such properties as high burst strength and high tear or high burst strength alongwith high air permeability.

Papermaking Operations
Stock preparation Beating/Refining influences paper properties significantly. -Defibrillation of fibers - roughening/loosening of fiber surface enhances surface area -Breaking of intrafiber bonds between intercellular walls resulting in enhanced swelling and collapse of fiber in water removal - removal of layers of fibril thereby forming fines

 Fines are very important for building bonding in mechanical pulps through interfiber bonding. - Since fibers are stiff, bonding is developed by building a bridge between two stiff fibers through fines. Fines are less important in chemical/ semichemical pulps, bonding develops between fibers due to fiber flexibility.

Alongside tensile strength, burst and double fold also improves on beating

Dryer Section
Drying removes water gradually from (i) between the fibers which builds bonding (ii) within the fibers, which result in collapse of fiber thereby increasing area between fiber-fiber bonds (iii) on further removal of water, fiber shrinks resulting in builtup of local stresses (in-built stresses) at fiber crossing points with the help of Stresses exerted on the sheet by the draw tension

 After the sheet leaves the dryer, the draw tensions are released but the stresses built at the fiber crossings remain as such termed as inbuilt stresses because the fibers at this stage are bonded tighly and hence frozen. These stresses are part f paper structure. These stresses are responsible for higher tensile strength, youngs modulus and high dimesional instability.

Machine Calendering
Dried paper is passed through nips of chilled iron cylinder rolls. The pressure experienced improves - improves uniformity of thickness - improves Smoothness and gloss - Bulk/porosity decreases Response of paper web to calendering improves on wetting paper because that makes fibers more pliable