Paper mill

International Paper Company's Kraft pulp and paper mill in Georgetown, South Carolina. When built, this was the world's largest mill.

Basement of paper mill in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Pulp and paper manufacture involves a great deal of humidity, which presents a preventive maintenance and corrosion challenge.

A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from wood pulp and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier Machine or similar apparatus.

History

In 105 AD the first papermaking process was created in China by the Han Dynasty Chinese court eunuch Tsai Lun. The technology spread from East Asia to the Islamic world after the Battle of Talas.

The earliest known paper mill is known to have operated in Baghdad, modern-day Iraq, as early as 794. After Baghdad, the paper-making process spread to Damascus, Egypt, and Morocco, and by the 10th century paper had replaced papyrus, wood, silk and parchment as the cheapest and most widespread writing substrate in the Islamic world.^[1]

In Europe the first mention of rag-paper is in the tract of Peter, Abbot of Cluny (1112 - 1150 AD), while the oldest recorded document on paper in Christian Europe is the eleventh century Missal of Silos, the paper for which was probably made in Islamic Spain.^[2] One of the first known paper mills in Europe was in Xativa near Valencia, Catalan Countries, established around 1151 AD by the Muslim Moors. ^[3]

Characteristics

Paper mills can be fully integrated mills or nonintegrated mills. Integrated mills consist of a pulp mill and a paper mill on the same site. Such mills receive logs or wood chips and produce paper. It is a common misconception that paper mills are sources of odors. Pulp mills and the pulping section of integrated mills (particularly if using the kraft process) commonly have associated odors; nonintegrated mills purchase wood pulp, usually in dry bales known as market pulp, and produce little, if any, odor.

The modern paper mill uses large amounts of energy, water, and wood pulp in a highly efficient and extremely complex series of processes, using modern and sophisticated controls technology to produce a sheet of paper that can be used in incredibly diverse ways. Modern paper machines are very large and can be 500 feet (~150 m) in length, produce a sheet 400 inches (~10 m) wide, and operate at speeds of more than 60 mph (100 km/h).^[4] The two main suppliers of paper machines are Metso and Voith.

See also

• Paper pollution
• Cutting Stock Problem
• List of paper mills

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paper mill

• Paperweb.biz - Paper world directory and search engine for the pulp and paper world

T.H.E. Journal [2]