What is paper made from and how? Brilliant reporting! Travels! Creative photo! How paper is made

Found in ancient Chinese sources. The official date of the first appearance of the first paper sheet is considered to be 105 BC, and this event is associated with the name of a dignitary from China, Cai Lun.
A semblance of paper was also used before the novelty, but this material was made from highly steamed silk or. Cai Lun made several experiments, thanks to which a unique one appeared. Pieces of cloth, ash, mulberry fibers and hemp were mixed in one container. All the ingredients had to be thoroughly mixed and evenly laid out in special forms. The workpiece was then dried under sunbeams and pressed with stones. The result was thin sheets.

It is worth noting that exact date the invention of paper is unknown. Archaeologists have found pieces of paper-like material during excavations in Egypt. Moreover, the date of the finds refers to the 300s BC.

Modern production

On the this moment paper is produced in factories equipped with special equipment. There are three production options - from wood or chemical pulp, as well as from waste paper.

Wood is obtained from the bark of birch, eucalyptus, pine or spruce. The material is carefully crushed using special equipment, and then mixed with a certain amount of water. Then the mixture goes to machines that make thin sheets of paper by pressing and leveling. Material of this quality is mainly used for printing newspapers or printed publications of relatively low cost. The paper has a yellowish tint and is not very strong.

Chemical pulp is used to make white paper more High Quality. The manufacturing process of such material also occurs in several stages. The bark of trees is crushed into small crumbs, which are carefully sieved. Then the sawdust is boiled for a certain time in huge cauldrons. Only after that the resulting mass is mixed with a special acid. To obtain thicker paper, shredded waste paper is often mixed into the main mass. The final step depends on the requirements. For example, if you need glossy paper, then resin is added to the mixture. If you need paper with increased strength, then glue becomes an additional ingredient. After the necessary additions, the mixture is sent under a press and thoroughly dried.

It is much easier to make paper from waste paper. "Old" paper is cleaned of paint, which is used to apply images and text. Then the material is carefully crushed and subjected to special processing, due to which a mixture is formed that resembles semolina. The mass is sent to rotating belts and subjected to pressing, sometimes it is added to the composition beforehand. tree bark. As a result of such a process, White paper, which is then cut into sheets and formed into separate blocks.

For the manufacture of colored paper, dyes of a certain color are added to standard mixtures. Sheets are subjected to additional processing, which should become velvet, shiny or embossed.

The answer to the question of how paper is made today lies in the plane of technology. But it's worth looking into history. The prototype of the material is ancient Egyptian papyrus - a plant from which writing material was made. The soaked core was connected by laying layers perpendicular to each other. After aging under pressure, the sheets were dried in the sun, cut and polished. The finished flexible scrolls were durable - some of them survived into the 21st century.

The manufacture of paper from materials familiar to us was put on stream in China. From the 2nd century A.D. e. mulberry bast processing technology gradually began to spread around the world. First, it moved from China to the Arab East, and then to Europe.

The first manufactories for the production of paper appeared in Europe in the 13th century. Since the 17th century, manufacturing paper materials engaged in Russian industrialists.

Some sheets of parchment are well preserved

Paper types

To understand how paper is made, you must first determine its type, because the composition of the raw materials can be different.

There are such types of material:

1. Offset. Widely used in typography - for printing books and mass printing products. The paper is resistant to moisture, which is important because offset printing uses humidifiers.
2. Packing. Durable, resistant to moisture. There are no high requirements for color and smoothness.
3. Newspaper. It is applied to the press on the high-speed equipment. Its feature is the increased absorbency of paints.
4. Coated. Differences from other species - whiteness, smoothness. High-quality illustrated editions are printed from it.
5. Cellulose. Consists of pure cellulose plus 1-3% additives. Used for printing banknotes and securities.

Gift Wrapping Paper

What is paper made from?

The raw materials are plant substances with long fibers. Mixing with water, they form a pliable, homogeneous semi-finished product. It is made from:

• wood - the mass is called cellulose;
• annual plants: material of increased whiteness is made from hemp or rice mass, strong and dense material is made from straw and reed;
• secondary raw materials - waste paper, rags;
• raw materials for paper production special purpose- wool, asbestos and other fibers.

The main material in the paper industry is wood. Whole trunks are delivered to the mills. There, they remove the bark from them, cut them. Next, the raw material is ground into flour - to fibril fibers.

In this form, the wood goes for grinding into flour

For the production of paper use:

• pine, cedar - soft breeds are suitable for the manufacture of packaging materials;
• maple, oak - base hard rock smooth, but less durable;
• Canadian spruce - a strong but elastic material is made from it;
• chestnut, birch and so on.

By mixing oak and pine raw materials, book paper is obtained. It is strong, elastic. To improve the quality of products, wood material is sorted, filtered, treated with chemical compounds.

Production steps

The technology consists of the following stages:

• mass processing - grinding, coloring, mixing of vegetable and chemical components;
• dilution of the mass with water, cleaning, pressing and drying;
• calendering;
• cutting, sorting and packing.

The papermaking process begins with the grinding of raw materials in continuously operating apparatuses. The factories use rolls, conical and disk type mills, refiners.

The resulting flour is purified, binder and filler are added:

• paraffin emulsions;
• alumina, kaolin;
• urea, melamine-formaldehyde resin;
• rosin and animal adhesives;
• talc, starch, etc.

The liquid composition is poured onto a flat screen of a paper machine. After compaction and molding, the whole web is coated with adhesive pigments (this is how coated paper is produced) or other compounds.

The next step is drying elevated temperature using grinding cylinders. The fibers solidify, forming a paper web. After dehydration, it enters the calenders. These are massive cylinders, combined by 5-8 pieces. Passing between them, the paper becomes smooth, leveled, compacted.

This is how paper is dried.

The finished tape is wound on a reel - a rotating cylinder with a pressure roller. He collects the canvas in a roll. Paper production technology also involves post-processing - glossing, coloring, cutting.

By the same principle, cardboard is produced - a material with a density of 250 g / m². Book covers, folders, packaging and other similar products are made from it.

Packing and cutting

The method for cutting paper rolls differs depending on the plans for using it. The rolls are cut in a rewinder, then wound into several rolls of smaller volume and diameter. Then they are divided into finished sheets for the print shop - for example, with a laser (the edges are neat, there is no soot on them).

Finished paper rolls

The last step in paper making is packaging. Its most common types are:

• packing in packs of 250-1,000 sheets wrapped in kraft paper or other dense and waterproof material;
• palletizing - transfer of sheets to flat rectangular stands with recesses for gripping and fastening;
• mixed method - first, the sheets are collected in packs, and then placed on pallets;
• packaging in “rolls” (rolls up to 10-15 kg) - suitable for technical, packaging paper of an enlarged format (it can be carried manually, without ramps and special equipment).

Paper Quality Criteria

1. Strength - resistance to tearing and compression during high-speed printing should be high.
2. Density - thin sheets are used for intaglio printing, thick sheets are used for packaging (range - from 60 to 300 g / m²);
3. Smoothness - the higher it is, the better the image details are reproduced, the contact between sheets and forms for printing is tighter;
4. Whiteness - the indicator falls in the range of 60-98%;
5. Opacity - the less the sheet is translucent, the less will be the degree of image development on the reverse side (for ordinary office paper - from 89%);
6. Porosity - paint is better fixed on a porous material, but prints lose their saturation.
7. Abrasion resistance - if it is low, viscous printing inks will "pluck" the fibers from the sheets, and this will contaminate the parts of the printing equipment.
8. Absorption - the higher it is, the faster the paint will be fixed on the surface of the sheet.
9. The presence of sizing - with it the top layer will be durable, resistant to moisture, glue.

Watch an interesting report from the paper mill:

Results

• The first writing materials made from plant materials appeared in Ancient Egypt and China.
• paper today different types produced from wood, annual plants, secondary raw materials.
• The paper industry uses pulp from conifers, oak, birch, chestnut.
• Paper production technology involves grinding, mass preparation, pressing, drying, calendering, winding into rolls. Post-production stages - cutting and packaging.
• The quality of a material is determined by its density, opacity, smoothness, and other parameters.

WHAT IS THE ARTICLE ABOUT?

What is paper made from?

The basis for paper production is cellulose and water. Cellulose fibers are obtained from plant materials. Most often it is wood, but straw, cotton and waste paper are also used. After receiving the cellulose fibers, they are straightened and bleached, the entire mass is dried and smoothed. Dyes are also added to produce colored paper. The paper is wound into rolls and cut. Next, we will go into more detail about each stage of paper production.

To obtain cellulose fibers, wood passes long haul. Firstly, only certain types of wood are suitable for this. Most often it is spruce, pine, poplar and birch. Sometimes eucalyptus, reed and chestnut are used.

Factory production

The process of processing wood begins with debarking, that is, getting rid of the bark. The logs are loaded into a special drum, which has a rough surface with projections. One batch spins in it for about 20 minutes, after which the bark is burned.

The debarked wood is transferred to a conveyor, through which it enters special saws, which grind it into approximately identical fragments, called chips. Chips can be stored for a long time.

The chip processing process begins with washing. After which it is crushed into dust. Then it is subjected to alkaline treatment. This happens in large vats of water and chemicals in which to boil long time. This is done to break the bond between cellulose fibers, which are a kind of natural glue. The whole mixture is filtered and washed thoroughly. After that, various fillers, impregnations, dyes are added to it. Substances depend on the type of future paper.

The result is a finished pulp mixture that is 99% water. The resulting mass is fed into the paper machine. First of all, the cellulose mixture falls on a moving mesh with very small cells that only allow water to pass through. After that, the wet paper web falls on a felt belt, then on to cylindrical presses, as a result of which the amount of water is significantly reduced.

The next stage, after which only a few percent of water remains, is drying. The web is driven through heated rotating drums, due to which it stands out a large number of moisture and the mass dries.

The time of the final paper production process. It enters the heated and polished heavy shafts, which are called calenders. Between them, the paper layer is compressed with great force, as a result of which it becomes completely dry and smooth.

Then the paper is rolled into large rolls, for example, rolls for the preparation of A4 sheets have a mass of about 35 tons and will contain 50 kilometers of paper. To do office paper coils are cut into smaller ones and sent to paper cutters. On these automated devices, production reaches a speed of 55,000 sheets per minute. And in an hour, such a factory produces about 7,000 packages.

How paper is made from recycled paper.

The principle of paper production from waste paper remains the same - it is the production of cellulose. The technology for the production of paper from waste paper differs from the production of paper from vegetable raw materials only until the moment when cellulose fibers are obtained from the source material.

At the first stage, waste paper is loaded into a hydraulic beater, which works on the principle of a kitchen blender. Under the action of a mechanical process and water, the waste paper is divided into fibers and turns into a liquid paper pulp. Next comes chemical process separation of ink and impurities. The subsequent manufacturing process is identical to any other raw material. Substances are added, sent to the paper machine, rolled and cut.

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. Then he polished the dried mass with a stone.

It turned out paper from wood, and the Chinese eunuch 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 material

Paper is produced 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 mechanical method is considered the most economical. At the woodworking enterprise, the 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.

Do-it-yourself sawdust paper

Sawdust from pine or spruce is filled with water and boiled for exactly a 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 cooking, 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 must be covered on both sides with paper or newspaper and placed between the boards, pressed on top with something heavy. 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.

Compound

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

Nowadays, cellulose is obtained by chemical means using technological processes. To obtain high quality paper, it must contain the following ingredients:

• The sizing is hydrophobic, which prevents ink from spreading on paper. They don't show through reverse side 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 and increase its density.

Types of wood

It 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 regions with tropical climate- teak, ebony and mahogany.

Paper made from wood of these species is highly valued. But, unfortunately, they are growing slowly. They are cut down more than reproduced. Therefore, in tropical forests trees of valuable species is 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 review, does not need such processing for printing needs, 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 squeezes out water, the other dries the tape, the third one polishes it.

At the next stage, the paper is sent to the wet press shop. Here the fibers are degreased and further compacted. The result is dry wood paper white color, wound into huge rolls that go to the printing house. There they are cut according to the required dimensions.

In spite of rapid development computer technology and a variety of electronic storage technology, paper remains the most common and actively used material for storing information. It is difficult to overestimate its place in everyday use. It is needed in office work, printing, everyday life.

Paper from antiquity

The history of paper production goes back to ancient times. Even the ancient Egyptians used the prototype of modern paper for writing, making their papyri from reed fibers crushed and pressed into thin sheets. The stems of this aquatic plant are made up of thin and strong cellulose filaments, which were released with the help of a special treatment. The addition of adhesive substances made it possible to form a sufficiently thin layer from the resulting mass, which, after drying, acquired the desired characteristics. Ancient paper was quite dense, rough to the touch and did not have the whiteness that is inherent in modern writing materials.

Leather manuscripts

AT Ancient Europe parchment was used instead of paper. For its manufacture, thin and elastic skins of small cattle. The skin taken from sheep and goats was processed according to special technologies, after which it became soft and smooth. Layers of the prepared material were cut to the size of the future book and sewn together in bookbinding workshops. Scattered documents were transported and stored in the form of scrolls. In this case, the skin did not wrinkle and did not have folds on which it could fray.

A tree to write on

Modern technologies for the manufacture of various grades of paper involve the use of various kinds wood. In the production process, it is crushed to the desired size. The resulting mass is soaked in containers, where chemicals necessary for the process of releasing cellulose fibers are added.

Prepared paper pulp, bleached or dyed, is formed into a web using paper machines. It is passed through whole line rollers that level and dry the paper blank. The result is a finished material that has the necessary characteristics:

• thickness;
• density;
• color;
• surface quality.

Different grades of paper are intended for different uses - for office equipment, thicker and more durable paper is needed, for newspapers it is not of such high quality. Toilet and tissue paper have their own requirements.

Alternative paper production

Using only wood to make paper products can quickly lead to the complete destruction of forests on the planet. Therefore, alternative technologies have been developed and used for a long time.

Cellulose, which is the basis paper pulp, obtained from the straw of cereal crops. A huge amount of it accumulates in the fields every year. And most often it is simply left on the ground to serve as fertilizer.

Other crops can also become sources of fibrous mass:

• hemp;
• cane.

In our country, as well as throughout the world, there is an active collection of waste paper, which is used as a secondary raw material. Old books, newspapers, packaging are crushed, bleached, washing off printing ink and ink, and paper is made from the resulting mass again. It is not as high quality, but it is quite suitable for printing.

paper from everything

In some countries, for the manufacture of writing products, they have mastered the processing of fabric - rags are processed using similar technologies. Cotton and linen fibers, synthetic threads have the necessary properties, which allows them to be used for the manufacture of durable high-quality paper.

The industry today has companies that have completely abandoned the use of wood in the production of paper. They found completely unusual sources of raw materials for their products. Banana and palm leaves are used, all kinds vegetable fibers, wool, even the waste products of herbivores.

Special papers can be made from mineral fibers such as asbestos, for example.

The use of such innovations helps to preserve the forests that exist today, preserving them for the next generations of earthlings.