SYNERGISTIC EFFECTS BETWEEN BIRCH CHEMICAL MECHANICAL PULPS AND ASPEN BLEACHED KRAFT PULP

INTRODUCTIONIn papermaking, it is very often that more than one type (or grade) of pulps are used to develop paper sheet properties necessary for both machine runnability and requirement from the end users. In many high end paper grades (e.g., various high brightness printing/writing papers), long fiber from softwood bleached kraft pulp traditionally is often used in combination with short fiber from hardwood bleached kraft pulp (HBKP). In this combination, the long fiber component provi…

SYNERGISTIC EFFECTS BETWEEN BIRCH CHEMICAL MECHANICAL PULPS AND ASPEN BLEACHED KRAFT PULP

In this investigation, two different grades of birch chemical mechanical (P-RC APMP) pulps and aspen market bleached kraft pulp were compared by low consistency refining of the pulps separately and in different combinations. In addition, the separately refined pulps were also combined to compare with the pulps from the co-refined pulp blend. The results showed that in both cases there were synergistic effects between the two types of pulps: adding the birch P-RC APMP pulp to the aspen kraft pulp improved pulp properties, and the resultant pulp blends had a higher fiber bonding strength (tensile and tensile energy absorption) than the sum of weighted contributions from the individual components. Understanding this synergistic effect between chemical mechanical (P-RC APMP) and kraft pulps can help to improve their applications and performances in various papermaking processes.The results also showed that introducing, at least up to certain percentage of, the birch P-RC APMP pulp into the aspen bleached kraft pulp not only improves optical and bulk properties, but also maintains or improves tensile strength, even though the P-RC APMP pulp used has lower tensile than the kraft pulp.