What is a Paper?

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Written By World Paper Mill

Pulp and Paper Industry Expert

Paper is a thin material produced by pressing together moist fibres of cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets

Fiber is the main substance used to make paper. Earlier paper was made by a wide variety of materials like wood pulp, rice, water plants or even clothes. In ancient time people learned the different methods of making paper. Manufacturing paper by the help of wood and some particular trees were the only way of producing paper. It has been easier to get paper fiber, which comes from pulpwood logs and recycled paper products.

The cellulose pulp and moist fiber derived from wood, rags etc, are pressed together and dried to get thin material of paper. Various kinds of machines are used to make different solutions for the paper. Different machines had made it easy to yield the pulp and other paper solution with the use of waste/raw material. The new technology machines also have impact on saving electricity, water and man power. New machinery had made a huge influence on environment.

Use of waste and other raw and recycled material has a huge amount of fiber making efficiency which helps for the good results of the paper. Used paper or newspaper and cardboard boxes can also be reused. The contaminants on the used paper and other material used for making pulp are separated by their respected machines. Contaminants like sand, ink and other unwanted substances which can ruin the pulp, are separated with the help of machines.

Quality of paper is as well important as, some paper can give poor stability and less life of the paper. Some paper which contains less fiber and are thin more than enough, starts spreading ink while printed or written on. To avoid the spreading of ink aluminium sulphate is used which stops the spreading of ink and gives the stability in the paper. Aluminium sulphate helps the paper in making water resistant so that ink does not run or spread when written or printed. Aluminium sulphate can help in many ways like to get rid of dust and other micro-organisms in the used raw materials.

There are various kinds of paper and they also have different methods of manufacturing paper. For example; bond paper are stronger and has more durable than the average papers. Gloss coated, matt coated, watermarked paper differs in the method of manufacturing. Good quality of paper in specified by its thickness and material used in making paper. Thickness of the paper is stated by its weight in grams per square meter (GSM). Low grade photocopier paper is around 80gsm and good quality letterhead around 120gsm. Therefore, the quality of paper is measured by gram per square meter (GSM).

Every paper has its own quality which can be useful for certain work. Today, there is largest paper producing countries on large scale called paper mills. They manufactures good quality of paper in hundreds and thousands tons of paper each

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