Blotting Paper for Bench Type Testing - A 48-inch Pilot Paper Machine Production Run

Abstract

Paper manufacturing originated in China in 105 BC and has come a long way. Countless different paper grades have been developed and are being used all over the world today. One of these paper grades is blotting paper, first recognized in 1465 and machine manufactured in the 1800’s. Today, one of the blotting paper applications is to absorb water during handsheet forming for paper testing. Blotting paper product with an oven dry basis weight of 269.8 g/m² and 322.6 g/m², a thickness of 484 µm and 566 µm, respectively was manufactured on a 48-inch small commercial Fourdrinier paper machine. The wet tensile index and stretch was 0.9 Nm/g and 3.54% and 0.94 and 4.04% for the lower and higher bases weight. Water absorbance achieved values of 44.42 mL/s for the top side and 25.43 mL/s for the wire side for the 269.8 g/m² blotting paper and 27.91 for the top side and 20.55 mL/s for wire side of the 322.6 g/m² blotting paper. The minimum total absorbency requirements of 500 ± 50 g/m² was achieved for both basis weights. Optical properties measured included Opacity at 99.98%, brightness at 86.89%, whiteness at 76.04% and color of 96.43% for the L* value, -0.93 for the a* value, and 3.33 for the b* value. The manufactured blotting paper has been successfully used producing handsheets with basis weights between 20 g/m² and 300 g/m² utilizing virgin and recycled fiber material.