Influences of consolidation processes on local paper structure

The accurate measurement of the structural parameters such as thickness, grammage, apparent density and surface topography, and the proper evaluation of the variation of each parameter, are very important not only for predicting the end use properties of the paper, but also for diagnosing the pa permaking processes. The difficulty of the measurement of thickness at fine scale ∼1 mm has been an impediment to the understanding of local paper structure. To address this problem, a twin laser profilometer instrument (TLP) for non-contacting measurement of local thickness and surface topography was developed, characterized and calibrated in this work.; The fundamental relationships between structural parameters were reexamined with various handsheet samples. The effects of wet pressing on the local paper structure were evaluated using laboratory static press and commercial press felts. The different press pressure had no significant influence on the local density variation of the handsheet samples. The influences of felts on the surface topography were also successfully observed. The different densification effects of soft nip and hard nip calendering processes were evaluated by direct comparison of structural parameters before and after processing. The much higher selective reduction in local thickness (larger reduction for the thicker area) by the hard nip calendering process resulted in different relationships between structural parameters. The various periodic variations in the paper structure were also detected, analyzed and identified.; The effects of different forming elements such as the conventional foil system and the velocity induced drainage (VID) system on the paper structure and end use properties were evaluated with pilot machine trials and commercial product produced using different forming elements. Generally, the VID samples showed better formation, less two sidedness in the fine distribution through thickness direction, and less densification during post forming process. The higher bulk was observed in the VID samples, which resulted in higher scattering coefficient, lower Z-directional tensile strength, and higher bending stiffness.