Clues and Knowhow Office Paper: Knowhow 4: How Paper is made
Paper manufacture nowadays is a mainly computer-controlled process. Men take correcting actions only in eliminating damages or in monitoring.
The simplified depicted process begins with
- Rebuild of wood and/or straw in very small particles. Cleaning of recovered paper with subsequent milling.
- In a Pulper all ingredients are blended.
- The liquid homogeneous pulp flows into the wire section, which is a moving, endless wire mesh. Here the fibres start to spread and accumulate into a thin sheet, while part of the water is draining off.
- Follows the press section, where a series of presses squeeze more water out of the sheet.
- In the drying section it passes around several heated cast-iron cylinders, until it is down to the desired humidity. Now can follow a surface refinement.
- In the calander, an ironing kind process, to smooth the surface of the paper while it passes between rotating metal rollers.
- The Paperroller rolls up the finished paper.