A paper machine (or paper-making machine) is an industrial machine which is used in the pulp and paper industry to create paper in large quantities at high speed. Modern paper-making machines are based on the principles of the Fourdrinier Machine, which uses a moving woven mesh to create a continuous paper web by filtering out the fibres held in a paper stock and producing a continuously moving wet mat of fibre. This is dried in the machine to produce a strong paper web.
The basic process is an industrialised version of the historical process of hand paper-making, which could not satisfy the demands of developing modern society for large quantities of a printing and writing substrate. The first modern paper machine was invented by Louis-Nicolas Robert in France in 1799, and an improved version patented in Britain by Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier in 1806.
The same process is used to produce paperboard on a paperboard machine.
Process sections
Paper machines usually have at least five distinct operational sections:
Forming section, commonly called the wet end, is a continuous rotating wire mesh which removes water from the paper by sucking it out of suspension via vacuum. Press section, where the wet fibre web passes between large rolls loaded under high pressure to squeeze out as much water as possible. Drying section, where the pressed sheet passes partly around, in a serpentine manner, a series of steam heated drying cylinders. Drying removes the water content down to a level of about 6%, where it will remain at typical indoor atmospheric conditions. Infra-red driers are also used to supplement cylinder drying where required. Size Press section, where the semi-dried paper is applied with a thin layer of starch and/ or other chemicals to improve several paper properties, reduce dusting and air permeability, increase stiffness, bursting strength and short span compression Calender section, where the dried paper is smoothened under high loading and pressure. Only one nip (where the sheet is pressed between two rolls) is necessary in order to hold the sheet, which shrinks through the drying section and is held in tension between the press section (or breaker stack if used) and the calender. Extra nips give more smoothing, but at some expense to paper strength. The calendar section can either be a part of the machine (On-line) or in a separate part of the paper mill (Off-line). Reel section, where paper coming out of the machine is wound onto individual spools for further processing. There can also be a coating section to modify the surface characteristics with coatings such as kaolin clay, alternatively known as china clay. This section can be on-line or off-line as well.
History
Before the invention of continuous paper making, paper was made in individual sheets by stirring a container of pulp slurry and either pouring it into a fabric sieve called a sheet mould or dipping and lifting the sheet mould from the vat. While still on the fabric in the sheet mould, the wet paper was pressed to remove excess water. The sheet was then lifted off to be hung over a rope or wooden rod to air dry.
Fourdrinier machine
In 1799, Louis-Nicolas Robert of Essonnes, France, was granted a patent for a continuous paper making machine. At the time, Robert was working for Saint-Léger Didot, with whom he quarreled over the ownership of the invention. Didot believed that England was a better place to develop the machine but due to the turbulence of the French Revolution, he could not go there himself, so he sent his brother-in-law, John Gamble, an Englishman living in Paris. Through a chain of acquaintances, Gamble was introduced to the brothers Sealy and Henry Fourdrinier, stationers of London, who agreed to finance the project. Gamble was granted British patent 2487 on October 20, 1801. The Fourdrinier machine used a specially woven fabric mesh conveyor belt (known as a wire, as it was once woven from bronze) in the forming section, where a slurry of fibre (usually wood or other vegetable fibres) is drained to create a continuous paper web. The original Fourdrinier forming section used a horizontal drainage area, referred to as the drainage table.
With the help of Bryan Donkin, a skilled and ingenious mechanic, an improved version of the Robert original was installed at Frogmore Paper Mill, Apsley, Hertfordshire, in 1803, followed by another in 1804. A third machine was installed at the Fourdriniers' own mill at Two Waters. The Fourdriniers also bought a mill at St Neots intending to install two machines there, and the process and machines continued to develop.