Title
Effects of furnish and refining on properties of household paper
Authors
CHING-HO CHANG SHIH-TSUNG YU and YUAN-SHING PERNG

Received March 7, 2017
Published Volume 52 Issue 5-6 May-June
Keywords softness, fiber morphology, refining, furnish mix, household paper

Abstract
This study examined the effects of furnish mixing ratios, fiber morphologies and pulp refining on the softness of household paper, based on laboratory experiments and actual production line results. The experimental results indicated that refining significantly reduced the softness of household paper. At a pulp freeness of < 500 mL CSF, the effect was alleviated. Hand-felt tissue softness results based on Tissue Softness Analyzer determinations and bulk softness changed according to the fiber length-to-thickness ratio of fiber morphological characteristics. The surface softness of tissues varied with the fiber slenderness ratio. On-site production can modulate the product softness to remain at higher levels by selecting fibers with a greater length-to-thickness ratio and fiber slenderness ratio, coupled with adjustments to the furnish mix and refining degree. At the same quality level, selecting suitable pulp was estimated to save US$ 6~10 pulp costs per ton of paper produced.