Question

Explain the process of paper-making in your own words.

Answer 1

• Step I – Forestry: Typically, trees used for papermaking are specially grown and harvested like a crop for that purpose 
• Step II – Debarking, chipping, and recycling: To begin the process, logs are passed through a debarker, where the bark is removed, and through chippers, where spinning blades cut the wood into small chips. Those wood chips are then pressurecooked with a mixture of water and chemicals in a digester. Used paper is another important source of paper fiber. The paper is shredded and mixed with water. 
• Step III – Pulp preparation: The pulp is washed, refined, cleaned, and sometimes bleached, then turned to slush in the beater. Color dyes, coatings, and other additives are mixed in one and the pulp slush is pumped onto a moving wire screen. 
• Step IV – Paper formation: As the pulp travels down the screen, water is drained away and recycled. The resulting crude paper sheet, or web, is squeezed between two large rollers to remove most of the remaining water and ensure smoothness and uniform thickness. The semi-dry web is then run through heated dryer rollers to remove the remaining water. Papermakers carefully test such things as uniformity of color and surface, water resistance, and ink holding ability. 
• Step V – Paper finishing: The finished paper is then wound into large rolls. A slitter cuts the paper into smaller, more manageable rolls, and the paper is ready to use.