Wooden paper: what it is made of

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Paper is consumed by people in huge quantities. One person per year accounts for one hundred and fifty kilograms. From what and how paper is made, read the article.

Historical information

Long ago, in 105 BC, Cai Lun, an imperial subject from China, made paper from mulberry wood. He made a mixture of his wood, hemp, rags, added wood ash and laid it all out on a sieve to dry. After that, he polished the dried mass with a stone.

The result was paper from wood, and the Chinese eunuch Cai Lun became the first author of its technology. That's what the Chinese think. But scientists have a different opinion. This is due to the fact that archaeologists often find paper scraps in China that date back to an earlier period.

Raw materials

Paper is made from wood pulp, other plant fibers: cane, rice, straw, hemp, as well as from rag waste, waste paper and other materials. To obtain cellulose, wood of different tree species is used. Wood pulp can be obtained in several ways.

The most economical is the mechanical method. At the enterprisewoodworking, wood is crushed, crumb is obtained. It is mixed with water. Paper from cellulose obtained in this way is fragile, newspapers are made from it. High quality paper is made from cellulose, which is obtained using a chemical method. To do this, small chips are cut from a wooden beam. It is sorted by size. Then they are immersed in a solution with chemicals and boiled in a special machine. After that, it is filtered and washed, as a result of which excess impurities are removed. This is how paper raw materials are obtained, which is called wood pulp. It is used to produce paper for magazines, books, brochures, wrapping materials of high strength.

DIY sawdust paper

Sawdust from pine or spruce is poured with water and boiled for exactly one day. Caustic soda is added to the water. In the absence of such, you can use baking soda. After boiling, the mixture is washed with water and squeezed. Then again the sawdust is poured into a pot of water and put on fire. As soon as they boil, the pan is removed from the heat, its contents are crushed with a mixer. It turns out a porridge-like mass of a homogeneous consistency.

While the sawdust is boiling, a frame is made, placed on a pallet, gauze is pulled over it. The mass is poured onto the prepared frame and evenly distributed over the entire surface. Excess water will drain into the tray. But to quickly remove moisture, it should be blotted with absorbent wipes. Then the frame is turned over and the sheet obtained from the mass is easily separated from it.

The sheet needs to be coveredon both sides with paper or newspaper and put between the boards, press something heavy on top. Under such pressure, he should lie for five minutes. After that, the sheet is carefully placed on the foil and dried in the sun, in the oven, near the battery.

Composition

Wood paper is made from wood pulp obtained using a mechanical production method. Sometimes other materials are taken as the basis. Such paper can be made even at home. But it will be of low quality.

In our time, cellulose is produced chemically using technological processes. To obtain high quality paper, it must contain the following ingredients:

• Sizing is hydrophobic, which prevents ink from spreading on paper. They do not show through on the reverse side of the sheet. Rosin glue is used as sizing.
• Resin, glue or starch. Thanks to these substances, wood paper becomes more durable and resistant to various influences on it.
• Kaolin, talc or chalk make the paper less transparent, increase its density.

Types of wood

She is hard and soft. The first type of wood is obtained from coniferous trees: pines, fir, spruce, sequoia and hemlock. Soft wood is obtained from broad-leaved species: beech, maple, poplar, birch, oak. In tropical regions, teak, ebony and mahogany.

Paper from these types of wood is highly valued. But, unfortunately, they are growing slowly. Themcut down more than they reproduce. Therefore, in the rainforests, trees of valuable species are becoming less.

Paper production today

Real paper is considered to be the one that is made from the pulp, the individual fibers of which are obtained by soaking cellulose raw materials. The mass is first mixed with water, and then scooped out in a form on which the mesh is stretched. Excess water drains, the mass dries up, a sheet of paper is obtained. This is how the Chinese citizen Cai Lun received his first piece of paper. During this time, although about two thousand years have passed, no significant changes have occurred.

Today, paper production is carried out in modern factories with huge workshops, on the equipment of which various operations are performed. After receiving wood pulp, the fibers are shaped and structured, for which the paper raw material is mixed with adhesives and resins. The glue repels water from the paper and the resin prevents the ink from bleeding. Wood paper, the photo of which is presented for viewing, does not need such processing for printing purposes, since the printing ink does not spread.

The next step is coloring. To do this, the paper is placed in a mixer with pigments or dyes. Then the mushy mass enters the machine, which is called the paper machine. After all stages of processing in this machine, the mass becomes a paper roll tape, which passes through many rollers: one wrings out the water, the other dries the tape, the third one polishes.

At the next stage, the paper is sent to the wetpressing. Here the fibers are degreased and compacted even more. The result is dry white wood paper, wound into huge rolls, which go to the printing house. There they are cut to size.