Fiber Cores - Technology to Meet Industry Requirements, 1995 Finishing and Converting Conference Proceedings

D. R. Osborne

Sonoco Products Company

Numerous trends are having major impacts on both the paper mills’ winding operations and on the pressrooms and converters unwinding operations. As a result of these trends,the fiber core manufacturer of the nineties must be able to deliver cores that can perform under much greater loads and stresses than ever before. The cores must provide for smooth effective winding and contribute to good roll structure even with 50 inch roll diameters, lengths up to 125 inches, and roll weights exceeding five to six tons.

The pressrooms and converters then expect these rolls of paper to run trouble-free: no vibration, web flutter or breaks at speeds exceeding 3,000 feet per minute.

Flat crush performance alone is not the answer. Winding and unwinding forces now exerted on the core require higher strengths in many dimensions. The dynamic strength of the cores, combined with the critical speed performance, are very important attributes. Understanding these total requirements and designing the proper core to give optimum performance is the challenge of the nineties. High performance cores in both three and six inch inside diameters are now available to meet this challenge.