Papermaking Using Packaging Laboratory Equipment

Research Track

Abstract

Making paper sheets requires expensive equipment. In this work, the packaging laboratory equipment was used to simulate the papermaking process. A blender was used to create wet pulp from a single-face corrugated strip. A vibration table was used to drain the water from the wet pulp, simulating the vibration of the conveyor moving wet pulps. An environmental chamber was used to dry the paper sheet specimens. Finally, a rolling mill machine was used to compress the dried paper sheet to a consistent thickness with a smoother surface, simulating the calendering process. A tensile test was then performed on the paper specimens.
For a 5-inch x 7-inch specimen with about 0.13-inch thickness used in this study, the draining rate during vibration was about 0.0048 to 0.0063 lb/min for 30 Hz to 61 Hz vibrational frequencies. It took about 28 hours to bring the damped specimens after vibration to a constant weight under 73F and 50% Relative Humidity (RH) in the environmental chamber. After calendering to a thickness of about 0.06 inches with a rolling mill machine, the tensile index of the paperboard was 2.78 N/m/grammage. The vibration reduced the compression strength of the paperboard by making it less dense.