How to make paper

paper

Paper is one of the most important industrial products today. It is the basic material for the dissemination of information, as books, magazines, and newspapers are printed on it, just as individuals obtain information from computers printed on it, and no matter how developed electronic means are in studying and working, different institutions cannot continue to work without printing and writing on paper, and the word paper It is derived from the name of the papyrus plant (in English: Plant Papyrus) from which papyrus was made, as this plant was growing widely on the banks of the Nile River in Egypt.

The ancient Egyptians used papyrus to write on it around the year 2700 BC, as this paper was cheap and accessible to everyone, and papyrus was a light and flexible material that could be written on easily, and papyrus is one of the most Which was used widely in ancient times, and it is worth noting that there are still many papyrus records that exist to this day, and the paper industry is not limited to paper used in writing and printing only, but also makes cardboard used in packaging, packaging, and insulation paper as well. There's dryer sheets, tissues, and paper towels.

Paper is made mainly from cellulose fibers, and the necessary fibers are obtained from several plant sources, such as bamboo, halfa, cotton, hemp, wheat stalks, rice stalks, sugarcane sticks, and other woods. It is worth noting that several types of paper are produced. Paper differs in its qualities; According to the type of fibers used in manufacturing, cotton and flax were among the most important raw materials used in the manufacture of paper pulp, and despite their replacement with wood, whether from cutting forest trees, or from waste resulting from woodworking, flax and cotton fibers are still It is used to produce high-quality paper, especially business paper, and works of art that are kept for a very long time. As for waste paper, it is not disposed of and destroyed, but rather recycled. To manufacture new paper, by collecting waste papers, whether they are newspapers, magazines, or others, cleaning them from ink, making new paste that can be used again, and making paper from them again.

How to make paper

Paper is made from plant fibers in general, and examples include papyrus plant fibers. Where longitudinal strips are taken from the papyrus plant and placed oppositely in two or three layers on top of each other, then they are wetted with water, then stacked and pressed well until they hold together, and then dried in the form of leaves separated from each other, and it is worth noting that in the event of cutting the stems papyrus plants while they are wet, they will naturally hold together; Because of the sap in the fibers, but if the stems are cut while they are dry, then an adhesive is used to hold the leaves together; where the adhesive made of rice starch is placed on the edge of the paper, then rubbed with a pumice stone, and it is worth noting that papyrus is weak and breaks quickly when subjected to stress, bearing in mind that papyrus was used in the form of rolls, and it was also used in the form of scrolls that are sewn in groups Small, in addition to the fact that the documents written on papyrus were kept in pottery jars, and the papyrus sheets were not equal in size, but were manufactured in different dimensions; Its width ranged from 90-548 cm, and the longest papyrus was known as the Harris Papyrus, with a length of 4053 cm.

Making paper from wood

As for the manufacture of paper from wood in general, it takes place in three operations; To convert wood into a paste from which paper is made, and these processes are: mechanical processes, chemical processes, and semi-chemical processes (which include both chemical and mechanical processes), and the method of making paper from wood through semi-chemical processes can be clarified in the following steps:

• Transporting wood from the wood store to the bark removal cylinder, and the wood store: it is the place where the wood that will be used in the paper industry is collected, whatever its source.
• Chopping the wood into fine longitudinal chips, 12-25 mm long, and cutting is done by the cutting machine, or the trowel.
• Wash the wood in a chip washer.
• wood processing in large tanks called digesters; Where it is cooked in an acidic solution, in a pressure tank that is heated by water vapor inside the digester, and this process is known as the chemical sulfite process, and wood can also be cooked in the sulfate process in which a solution of caustic soda and sodium sulfide is used, known as the Kraft process.
• Breaking the wood pulp into separate fibers in the refiner during the thermal mechanical kneading process in which the wood is heated, and then inserted between the two rotating discs in the refiner; For the production of separate fibers, chemicals are used in semi-chemical processes; To dissolve the lignin present between the fibers; to facilitate their separation.
• Passing the dough to the colander washers, i.e. to the special washers; To get rid of the effect of chemicals that were used inside the digester.
• pushing the dough through a series of sieves; To get rid of solid impurities and unwanted materials, this process is known as purification, in which the fiber walls are dissolved to become more flexible, and here a bleaching process can be performed. To produce whiter paper.
• Start forming paper rolls, by passing the fibers into the vertical box, and the wet fibers are spread in it through the wire; It is a moving sieve, where some water is drained from it to leave a mat of fibers on the surface of the wire, and when the dough becomes composed of one-fifth of the fibers, and four-fifths of water, the paper chip has become so strong that it can be removed from the wire easily.
• passing the resulting mat through rotating cylinders; To squeeze it, and thus become composed of fiber and water, in equal proportions.
• Passing the mat through cylinders heated by water vapor; To dry it completely, and here the chemical bonds that maintain the bonding of the paper chip particles and their cohesion arise.
• The paper is smoothed and smoothed by passing it through the polishing rollers.
• send the paper to the paper reel; To form a huge roll of paper.
• The resulting jumbo roll of paper is shipped to the manufacturing unit; to form the final products.

Homemade paper industry

Homemade paper can be made manually, and here it is worth mentioning that the following method is related to making paper manually using other unwanted papers, and the resulting paper will not have a soft texture like the paper made in paper mills using machines, as the method is as follows:

• Materials and tools needed:
  • 5 sheets of paper without a glossy layer.
  • Two sheets of plain white paper (optional).
  • 3 gallons of warm water.
  • A large bowl sufficient for the full amount of water and the size of the paper to be made.
  • Template for the paper industry.
  • 10 sheets of felt.
  • Sponge.
  • Blender.

• Manufacturing Method:
  • Heat the water until it becomes warm, so that it can be touched without causing harm.
  • Tear the five sheets of paper into small pieces, and put half of the resulting amount in the blender, and white paper can be added as well; For lighter colored paper.
  • Add 5 cups of water to the blender, and wait about 1-2 minutes before turning it on.
  • Run the mixer for one minute, until the paper is completely mixed and crumbled, and then put the resulting mixture in the bowl.
  • Repeat the previous steps with the remaining half of the paper.
  • Add the other mixture to the first mixture in the bowl, and mix them together.
  • Add another 4 cups of warm water to the mixture, and here it should be noted that the mixture must be very soft.
  • Bring the template on which the paper will be formed, and here it is worth mentioning that the template must be made of gauze, and has a fixed frame, such as a wooden frame.
  • Dip the mold into the bowl; To form on the gauze a layer of soft paper, and raise the template to the top, while allowing excess water to seep through the gauze.
  • Quickly flip the template onto a piece of felt.
  • Pressing the gauze on the other side with a sponge; to absorb the largest amount of remaining water.
  • Raise the mold, and remove the paper from the piece of felt, and it will be easy to remove if it is completely dry from the water.
  • Leave the paper for two full days to dry completely in the event that it is not easily removed from the piece of felt, and then carefully remove it from the piece of felt, and here one has obtained a paper that can be used and written on it, and to obtain a soft and smooth paper, it is advised to place a piece of felt on top of it; That is, the paper is between two pieces of felt, and then ironed using an iron, and in this way the paper is smoothed and smoothed, and any bumps are removed.
  • Repeat dipping the mold into the bowl, and forming the paper until the quantity is over.