PAPER MAKING PROCESS

WOOD HANDLING

Wood may arrive at a pulp mill wood yard in the form of raw logs or as chips from a lumber
mill. Some pulp mill operations have on-site sawmills (often called “wood rooms”) which
produce both marketable lumber and stock for the pulp mill.

The wood preparation area of a pulp mill has several basic functions:

1. To receive and meter the wood supply to the pulping process at the rate demanded by the
mill;
2. To prepare the wood so that it meets the mill’s feed specifications for species, cleanliness
and dimensions;
3. To collect any material rejected by the previous operations and send it to final disposal.

Wood is converted into chips or logs suitable for pulping in a series of steps which may include
debarking, sawing, chipping and screening.

Logs are debarked because bark contains little fibre, has a high extractives content, is dark, and
often carries large quantities of grit. Debarking can be done hydraulically with high-pressure
water jets, or mechanically by rubbing logs against each other or with metal cutting tools.
Hydraulic debarkers may be used in coastal areas; however, the effluent generated is difficult to
treat and contributes to water pollution.

Debarked logs may be sawn into short lengths (1 to 6 metres) for stone ground wood pulping or
chipped for refiner mechanical or chemical pulping methods. Chippers tend to produce chips
with a considerable size range, but pulping requires chips of very specific dimensions to ensure
constant flow through refiners and uniform cooking in digesters. Chips are therefore passed over
a series of screens whose function is to separate chips on the basis of length or thickness.
Oversized chips are rechipped, while undersized chips are either used as waste, fuel or are
metered back into the chip flow.

The requirements of the particular pulping process and chip conditions will dictate the duration
of chip storage. Depending on fibre supply and mill demand, a mill will maintain a 2 to 6-week
unscreened chip inventory, usually in large outdoor chip piles. Chips may degrade through auto-
oxidation and hydrolysis reactions or fungal attack of the wood components. In order to avoid
contamination, short-term inventories (hours to days) of screened chips are stored in chip silos or
bins. Chips for sulphite pulping may be stored outside for several months to allow volatilization
of extractives which may cause problems in subsequent operations. Chips used in kraft mills
where turpentine and tall oil are recovered as commercial products typically proceed directly to
pulping.

PULPING

Pulping is the process by which the bonds within the wood structure are ruptured either
mechanically or chemically. Chemical pulps can be produced by either alkaline (i.e., sulphate or
kraft) or acidic (i.e., sulphite) processes. The highest proportion of pulp is produced by the
sulphate method, followed by mechanical (including semi-chemical, thermomechanical and
mechanical) and sulphite methods. Pulping processes differ in the yield and quality of the
product, and for chemical methods, in the chemicals used and the proportion that can be
recovered for reuse.

The Manufacturing Process

Making pulp

 Several processes are commonly used to convert logs to wood pulp. In the mechanical
process, logs are first tumbled in drums to remove the bark. The logs are then sent to
grinders, which break the wood down into pulp by pressing it between huge revolving
slabs. The pulp is filtered to remove foreign objects.

In the chemical process, wood chips from de-barked logs are cooked in a chemical
solution. This is done in huge vats called digesters. The chips are fed into the digester and
then boiled at high pressure in a solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide. The
chips dissolve into pulp in the solution. Next, the pulp is sent through filters.

Bleach may be added at this stage or colorings. The pulp is sent to the paper plant.

Beating

 The pulp is next put through a pounding and squeezing process called, beating. Inside a
large tub, the pulp is subjected to the effect of machine beaters. At this point, various
filler materials can be added such as chalks, clays, or chemicals such as titanium oxide.
These additives will influence the opacity and other qualities of the final product.
 Sizings are also added at this point. Sizing affects the way the paper will react with
various inks. Without any sizing at all, a paper will be too absorbent for most uses except
as a desk blotter. A sizing such as starch makes the paper resistant to water-based ink
(inks actually sit on top of a sheet of paper, rather than sinking in). A variety of sizings,
generally rosins and gums, is available depending on the eventual use of the paper. Paper
that will receive a printed design, such as gift wrapping, requires a particular formula of
sizing that will make the paper accept the printing properly.

Pulp to Paper

 In order to finally turn the pulp into paper, the pulp is fed or pumped into giant,
automated machines. One common type is called the Four drinier machine, which was
invented in England in 1807. Pulp is fed into the Four drinier machine on a moving belt
of fine mesh screening.
 The pulp is squeezed through a series of rollers, while suction devices below the belt
drain off water. If the paper is to receive a watermark, a device called a dandy move
across the sheet of pulp and presses a design into it.

The paper then moves onto the press section of the machine, where it is pressed between
rollers of wool felt. The paper then passes over a series of steam-heated cylinders to
remove the remaining water. A large machine may have from 40 to 70 drying cylinders.

Finishing

 Finally, the dried paper is wound onto large reels, where it will be further processed
depending on its ultimate use. Paper is smoothed and compacted further by passing
through metal rollers called calendars. A particular finish, whether soft and dull or hard
and shiny, can be imparted by the calendars.

The paper may be further finished by passing through a vat of sizing material. It may also
receive a coating, which is either brushed on or rolled on. Coating adds chemicals or
pigments to the paper's surface, supplementing the sizings and fillers from earlier in the
process. Fine clay is often used as a coating. The paper may next be super calendered,
that is, run through extremely smooth calendar rollers, for a final time. Then the paper is
cut to the desired size.
CXHEMICAL PULPING

Evolution and Structure of the Industry

Papermaking is thought to have originated in China in about 100 A.D. using rags, hemp, and
grasses as the raw material, and beating against stone mortars as the original fiber separation
process. Although mechanization increased over the intervening years, batch production methods
and agricultural fiber sources remained in use until the 1800s. Continuous papermaking
machines were patented at the turn of that century. Methods for pulping wood, a more abundant
fiber source than rags and grasses, were developed between 1844 and 1884 and included
mechanical pulping, the soda, sulphite, and sulphate (kraft) chemical methods. These changes
initiated the modern pulp and paper manufacturing era.

Mechanical Pulping

Mechanical pulps are produced by grinding wood against a stone or between metal plates,
thereby separating the wood into individual fibers. The shearing action breaks cellulose fibers, so
that the resulting pulp is weaker than chemically separated pulps. The lignin connecting cellulose
to hemicellulose is not dissolved; it merely softens, allowing the fibers to be ground out of the
wood matrix. The yield (proportion of original wood in pulp) is usually greater than 85%. Some
mechanical pulping methods also use chemicals (i.e., the chemi-mechanical pulps); their yields
are lower since they remove more of the non-cellulosic materials.

Most paper is made by a mechanical or chemical process.

hemp and jute fibers are commonly used for textiles and rope making, but they can also be used
for paper. Some high-grade cigarette paper is made from flax.

Cotton and linen rags are used in fine-grade papers such as letterhead and resume paper, and for
banknotes and security certificates. The rags are usually cuttings and waste from textile and
garment mills. The rags must be cut and cleaned, boiled, and beaten before they can be used by
the paper mill.

Other materials used in paper manufacture include bleaches and dyes, fillers such as chalk, clay,
or titanium oxide, and sizings such as rosin, gum, and starch.