Impact of Pigment Blend and Binder Level on the Structure and Printability of Coated Papers, 2011 PaperCon Conference

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Formulation practice globally for single coating applications is very diverse ranging from kaolin rich to carbonate rich recipes. Carbonate choice can be based on standard or engineered grades. Likewise kaolin can engineered, delaminated or even ultrafine. Binder type and level also vary considerably. When contrasting these different approaches in a given application, it is often apparent that although the coating recipe may be different the end result in terms of paper properties can often be quite similar. However, differences in pore structure between different coating recipes remain evident and these differences can often show up in the ink-paper interaction.

In this paper we evaluated some commonly used single coating recipes to explore the differences in pore structure and their subsequent impact on paper properties and printability. Both pigment blend and latex level were varied.

Coating structure was characterised using a range of techniques (including mercury porosimetry and wavelength exponents). The critical pigment weight concentration of the mineral blends was also determined using a light scattering technique, and this gave a measure of the amount of binder required to completely surround the pigment particles and fill the voids between them and was found to be a function of the particle packing and surface area of the blends.