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cellophane

 
Dictionary: cel·lo·phane   (sĕl'ə-fān') pronunciation
 
n.

A thin, flexible, transparent cellulose material made from wood pulp and used as a moistureproof wrapping.

[Originally a trademark.]

cellophane cel'lo·phane' adj.
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A clear, flexible film made from cellulose. It first appeared commercially in the United States in 1924, and it revolutionized the packaging industry, which had been using opaque waxed paper or glassine as wrapping materials. Cellophane was also the first transparent mending tape. By 1960, petrochemical-based polymers (polyolefins) such as polyethylene had surpassed cellophane for use as a packaging film. Nevertheless, cellophane is still often used for packaging because it is stiffer and more easily imprinted than are polyolefin films.

Cellophane is manufactured in a process that is very similar to that for rayon. Special wood pulp, known as dissolving pulp, which is white like cotton and contains 92–98% cellulose, is treated with strong alkali in a process known as mercerization. The mercerized pulp is aged for several days.

The aged, shredded pulp is then treated with carbon disulfide, which reacts with the cellulose and dissolves it to form a viscous, orange solution of cellulose xanthate known as viscose. Rayon fibers are formed by forcing the viscose through a small hole into an acid bath that regenerates the original cellulose while carbon disulfide is given off. To make cellophane, the viscose passes through a long slot into a bath of ammonium sulfate which causes it to coagulate. The coagulated viscose is then put into an acidic bath that returns the cellulose to its original, insoluble form. The cellophane is now clear.

The cellophane is then treated in a glycerol bath and dried. The glycerol acts like a plasticizer, making the dry cellophane less brittle. The cellophane may be coated with nitrocellulose or wax to make it impermeable to water vapor; it is coated with polyethylene or other materials to make it heat sealable for automated wrapping machines. Cellophane is typically 0.03 mm (0.001 in.) thick, is available in widths to 132 cm (52 in.), and can be made to be heat sealable from 82 to 177°C (180 to 350°F). See also Polymer.


 
Food and Nutrition: Cellophane
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Trade name for the first of the transparent, non-porous films, made from wood pulp (cellulose), patented in 1908 by the Swiss chemist Jacques-Edwin Brandenburger; waterproof cellophane for food wrapping was developed by Du Pont in 1926. Still widely used for wrapping foods and other commodities.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: cellophane
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cellophane, thin, transparent sheet or tube of regenerated cellulose. Cellophane is used in packaging and as a membrane for dialysis. It is sometimes dyed and can be moisture-proofed by a thin coating of pyroxylin. There are several steps in the preparation of cellophane from raw cellulose. The cellulose is first treated with an alkali, e.g., sodium hydroxide, and mixed with carbon disulfide to form viscose (see viscose process). The viscose is aged for several days and then forced through a straight or circular slit into a dilute acid solution. The dissolved cellulose precipitates, and this regenerated cellulose has a lower molecular weight and a less orderly structure than the cellulose from which it is formed.


 
Wikipedia: Cellophane
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Printed cellophane bag with chocolate hearts and a transparent cellophane packaging with gingerbread

Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils and greases, and bacteria makes it useful for food packaging. Cellophane is in many countries a registered trade mark of Innovia Films Ltd, Cumbria, UK.

Contents

Production

Cellulose is treated with alkali and carbon disulfide to yield viscose.

Cellulose fibers from wood, cotton, hemp, or other sources are dissolved in alkali and carbon disulfide to make a solution called viscose, which is then extruded through a slit into a bath of dilute sulfuric acid and sodium sulfate to reconvert the viscose into cellulose. The film is then passed through several more baths, one to remove sulfur, one to bleach the film, and one to add glycerin to prevent the film from becoming brittle.

A similar process, using a hole (a spinneret) instead of a slit, is used to make a fibre called rayon. Chemically, cellophane, rayon and cellulose are polymers of glucose and contain the chemical elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.

History

Cellophane was invented by Swiss chemist Jacques E. Brandenberger while employed by Blanchisserie et Teinturerie de Thaon. In 1900, inspired by seeing a wine spill on a restaurant's tablecloth, he decided to create a cloth that could repel liquids rather than absorb them. His first step was to spray a waterproof coating on to fabric, and he opted to try viscose. The resultant coated fabric was far too stiff, but the clear film easily separated from the backing cloth, and he abandoned his original idea as the possibilities of the new material became apparent.

It took ten years for Brandenberger to perfect his film, his chief improvement over earlier work with such films being to add glycerin to soften the material. By 1912 he had constructed a machine to manufacture the film, which he had named Cellophane, from the words cellulose and diaphane ("transparent"). Cellophane was patented that year.[1] The following year, the company Comptoir des Textiles Artificiels (CTA) bought the Thaon firm's interest in Cellophane and established Brandenberger in a new company, La Cellophane SA.[2]

Whitman's candy company initiated use of cellophane for candy wrapping in the United States in 1912 for their Whitman's Sampler. They remained the largest user of imported cellophane from France until nearly 1924, when DuPont built the first cellophane manufacturing plant in the US. Cellophane saw limited sales in the US at first since while it was waterproof, it was not moisture proof—it held water but was permeable to water vapor. This meant that it was unsuited to packaging products that required moisture proofing. Du Pont hired the chemist William Hale Charch, who spent three years developing a nitrocellulose lacquer that, when applied to Cellophane, made it moisture proof.[3] Following the introduction of moisture-proof Cellophane in 1927, the material's sales tripled between 1928 and 1930, and in 1938, Cellophane accounted for 10% of Du Pont's sales and 25% of its profits.[2]

The British textile company Courtaulds' viscose technology had allowed it to diversify in 1930 into viscose film, which it named "Viscacelle". However, competition with Cellophane was an obstacle to its sales, and in 1935 it founded British Cellophane in conjunction with the Cellophane Company and its French parent company CTA.[4] A major production facility was constructed at Bridgwater, Somerset, England, from 1935-1937, employing 3,000 workers.

Present day

Cellulose film has been manufactured continuously since the mid-1930s and is still used today. As well as packaging a variety of food items, there are also industrial applications, such as a base for such self-adhesive tapes as Sellotape and Scotch Tape, a semi-permeable membrane in a certain type of battery, as dialysis tubing (Visking tubing) and as a release agent in the manufacture of fibreglass and rubber products. The word "cellophane" has become genericized in the US, and is often used informally to refer to a wide variety of plastic film products, even those not made of cellulose.[5] However, in the UK, Europe and in many other countries it is still a registered trademark and the property of Innovia Films Ltd.[6]

Cellophane sales have dwindled since the 1960s due to use of alternative packaging options, and the fact that viscose is becoming less common because of the polluting effects of carbon disulfide and other by-products of the process. However, the fact that cellophane is 100% biodegradable has increased its popularity as a food wrapping. Cellophane is the most popular material for manufacturing cigar packaging; its permeability to moisture makes cellophane the perfect product for this application as cigars must be allowed to "breathe" while in storage.[7][8]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Carlisle, Rodney (2004). Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries, p.338. John Wiley & Songs, Inc., New Jersey. ISBN 0471244104.
  2. ^ a b Hounshell, David A.; John Kenly Smith (1988). Science and Corporate Strategy: Du Pont R&D, 1902-1980. Cambridge University Press. pp. 170. ISBN 0521327679. 
  3. ^ Winkler, John K. (1935). The Dupont Dynasty. Baltimore, MD: Waverly Press, Inc.. pp. 271. 
  4. ^ Davenport-Hines, Richard Peter Treadwell (1988). Enterprise, Management, and Innovation in British Business, 1914-80. Routledge. pp. 61. ISBN 0714633488. 
  5. ^ Modern petro based Cello Bags
  6. ^ Room, Adrian (1983). Dictionary of Trade Name Origins. Routledge. pp. 51. ISBN 0710201745. 
  7. ^ at Pak-Sel Inc Accessed March 2007.
  8. ^ Biodegradable cellophane at Green Earth Office Supply. Accessed March 2007.

External links


 
Translations: Cellophane
Top

Dansk (Danish)
n. - cellofan

Nederlands (Dutch)
cellofaan

Français (French)
n. - cellophane

Deutsch (German)
n. - Cellophan (eingetragenes Warenzeichen)

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (χημ.) σελοφάν

Italiano (Italian)
cellofan

Português (Portuguese)
n. - celofane (m)

Русский (Russian)
целлофан

Español (Spanish)
n. - celofán

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - cellofan

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
玻璃纸

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 玻璃紙

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 셀로판

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - セロハン

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) ورق السلوفان, ورق شفاف عازل للتغليف‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮צלופן (נייר)‬


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Sci-Tech Encyclopedia. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Food and Nutrition. A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. Copyright © 1995, 2003, 2005 by A. E. Bender and D. A. Bender. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cellophane" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

 

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