Enhanced Capabilities in Wet-end Paper Machine Clothing, 2011 PaperCon Conference

Please Note: This document will be available in PDF format in the "My Electronic Documents" link on the home page once your order has been completed. Please make sure you have the latest version of Acrobat Reader. Click on the Acrobat Reader icon to check for the latest version, it’s FREE. To print a hardcopy of a PDF file correctly you must have a postscript printer. If you are not sure if your printer is a postscript printer please refer to your owner’s manual.

Purchase of electronic (downloadable) documents made at www.tappi.org by credit cards, followed by instant download CANNOT be cancelled. We do not offer refunds on electronic download documents.

The increased demand for higher paper machine production and efficiencies as well as lower total operating costs, particularly with energy consumption, has led to the development of two new concepts in Forming Fabric design. By increasing the ratio of paper side to wear side CD yarns in a sheet supporting binder (SSB) triple layer structure from 2:1 to 3:1, a significant step change in sheet support and fiber support index (FSI) of 15 – 35% has been achieved. Increasing surface sheet support contributes to improvements in retention of fines and fillers as well as sheet properties such as formation, porosity, roughness and print quality. Forming fabrics may also be manufactured with a heated compaction process that flattens the surface knuckles and reduces the fabric caliper and internal void volume by 5 – 15%. This provides improved vacuum dewatering efficiency resulting in higher couch solids and a cleaner return run of the wet end of the paper machine. Cleaner operation contributes to fewer wet end breaks and sheet defects. These two new concepts are shown separately and in combination to provide these anticipated benefits on several high speed publication grade machines.