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Paper Porosity and the Art of

Papermaking

Pekka Komulainen
Pekka.Komulainen@clarinet.fi
24 August, 2015
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Possibilities to utilize porosity measurements

Continuous porosity measurement tells what

has been made in papermaking and what will
be happen in printing or converting.
Air permeability is called porosity in the
following presentation.
Porosity is measured by air flow speed
through paper web over standard pressure
difference.
All papers have voids between fibers.
Scientific porosity means void volume
compared to total volume. That is different
than porosity or air permeability in this
presentation.

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Process control and porosity

Some uses of porosity measurement results to process optimization

Pulps and pulping processes Headbox consistency

Filler types and amount Slice and jet controls
Broke types and amount Dewatering arrangement
Wet end chemistry Wet pressing
Internal sizing Sheet release and draws
Refining Drying type
Fines retention Surface sizing
Air content

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Porosity for total process control

Fibers , refining, fines, fillers and wet end chemistry have effect on drainage, flocculation
and retention. All these effect on porosity, which is a good measure of paper quality.
Formation is a measure of small scale variations. Porosity depends on these variations as
well as the level of paper quality.

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Pele Oy Porosity control before headbox

Porosity decreases with:

Less softwood kraft pulp
More fine mechanical or hardwood pulp
More coated broke or DIP (normally)
More refining
More fiber fines
Less anionic trash (less hydrophobic material)
More wet end starch and other dry strength
chemicals
Less fillers or more platelike fillers (talc,
delaminated clay)
Less air in stock

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Refining and porosity

Conventional control of refining is to control Specific Refining Energy

SRE control of refiners cannot decrease pulp quality variations
With online porosity measurement this can be corrected

SRE = Specific Refining Energy

Pe = Effective Power, Pt = Total Power, Po = Idle Power
m = Fibre flow (Bone Dry)

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Online porosity control and refining

In series refining fibers are stiffer in the first refiner. If the load is too high,
fiber cutting and fines formation will increase. This decreases freeness
and drainage on the wire.
In the second (and third refiner) fibers are more flexible and specific edge
load can be higher without fiber cutting and fines formation. However,
internal fibrillation will advance more and more flexible fibers compensate
the lower binding power of fiber cutting.
Same porosity can be achieved with higher CSF when using increased
loading order. Total energy can be saved, drainage on the wire is
increased and lower headbox consistency can be used to get better
formation even if the fibers are longer and paper strength is better.
Loading shares between refiners is only one example how online porosity
can be utilised to optimise refining. This would not be possible by using
freeness measurement, which mostly reflects fines content.

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Porosity control on paper machine

Porosity decreases with:

Higher grammage
Better formation
Good retention
Slow and gentle water removal
More wet pressing
Less press draw
Lower drying shrinkage
More surface size
More film forming size (PVA, CMC)
Less surface size penetration
Pigmented surface size

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Press draw and porosity

A high press draw is not only question of runnability but also paper quality is lower
when low porosity is needed.
Porosity measurement is a good tool for evaluating what is a too high press draw.
Higher press draw increases roughness and decreases strength.

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 Total process control with porosity
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Low porosity Root cause: Final benefit of

correlates with: low porosity:

Wet Pressing Low press to dryer draw Good runnability

Good formation No pinholes No print through

Low air content Rotogravure printability

Low oil absorption Low silicone pick-up

Dense sheet
High internal bond Limit: Set-off in CSWO

Good refining Good bonding Offset printability

Good strength

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 Total process control with porosity
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Constant porosity Consistent quality

Papermakers know that final porosity of cigarette, filter and sack

papers is very important but also printability and runnability properties
of printing papers correlate well with final paper porosity.

Most on-line instruments measure and control only one paper

property. In addition to final paper porosity, which is an important
property for some paper grades, online porosity measurement is a
universal analyser of paper quality for most paper grades due to the
fact that almost all process parameters have a clear effect on porosity.

On the other hand, porosity correlates with almost all physical paper
properties. If porosity is constant, paper process performs well and
paper quality is consistent.

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Total process control with porosity

Decreased
Increased
basis weight
Porosity Increased
moisture

Higher Less Decreased Lower

opacity pinholes bulk caliper
More fiber bonding
Better Lower ink Lower
Better absorption stiffness
smoothness formation

Less print- Higher Less fluting Better

through Better strength in offset print gloss
ply bond
Less Lower light Lower tear Lower ink
dusting scattering strength demand

Green = positive
Lower opacity
and brightness
Red = negative

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Pele Oy Process parameters increasing porosity

Pulsating Poor wet end Reduced Less reject in Higher air

drainage chemistry refining screening content

Less wet Lower Lower fiber Less platey More

end starch retention fines content fillers flocculation

Carbonate Lower fiber Coarser fiber Less surface

More pin holes
fillers bonding type size

Higher Decreased Less broke

press draw wet pressing
More shrinkage
at web edges
Reduced Higher
calendering Porosity
Softer winding

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 Total process control with online porosity
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Porosity is an overall measure of process performance.

Porosity measurement is like freeness in stock preparation.
When porosity is stable process is performing well.
Porosity measurement is an excellent analyzer before
surface sizing and coating. Measurement not only shows the
history of the paper web but also predicts how good coverage
of size or coating can be achieved in the following process.
Film coating and cases where the positive effects should be
made with a minimum coat weight are well suited.
When porosity is low, size or coating penetration is reduced
and the effect of coating on the paper surface is better. This
is important when basis weight is low, coating colour cost is
high or when coating low brightness base paper e.g.
kraftliner.

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 Process optimization and paper quality
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Fast online porosity measurement is the best link between process performance and total
paper quality.
Stable porosity is a good guarantee of well working process and consistent paper quality.

Fillers Fibers Chemicals Refining Screening

Drainage Retention Air content Flocculation

Wet pressing Press draw Web shrinkage

Calendering Winding

Porosity measurement

Basis weight Moisture

Bulk Caliper Stiffness

Pin holes Formation Opacity Print through

Tensile Scott Bond Roughness Print gloss Ink demand

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MD and CD variation in porosity

CD variation of porosity is very stable. It can easily be measured in lab.

Machine direction variation seems to be in this case about 15 ml/min.
This could be corrected by using online porosity measurement.

MD var.

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Thank You for Your Attention

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