Futuristic Forming, 1992 Engineering Conference Proceedings

Over the next twenty years increasing demands will continue to be placed on production and quality for all grades of paper. Machine speeds will continue to increase and gap forming technology will spread and establish itself for the production of most grades of paper. With gap formers, rotating and stationary forming elements will be employed in a wide variety of combinations, depending on the application. An inclined or horizontal arrangement of the twin wire zone in gap formers will become more and more popular compared with vertical designs. With hybrid formers, roll formers will continue to be overtaken by blade formers. The various possibilities of influencing formation by vacuum and blades in the twin wire zone will be more intensively exploited. Multi-layer technology for tissue will allow lower basis weights while still maintaining important characteristics such as strength and softness. It is to be expected that wire/felt formers will become more popular. Environmental considerations will mean the increased use of waste paper and other less expensive raw materials such as fillers. Papermakers must react accordingly. Here, multi-layering will become an increasingly useful tool. The popularity of this technology will also increase for the higher range of basis weights.