Texturing Belt Cavities for Tissue Paper Bulk Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
The energy-intensive process of producing tissue paper using through-air drying (TAD) technology necessitates the development of alternative methods to achieve similar properties with reduced energy consumption, while maintaining control over tissue paper properties.
Innovation Solution
A texturing belt with a polymer material surface featuring cavities or 'dots' is used to impart a three-dimensional structure to the fibrous web, allowing for control over properties like dryness, caliper, and softness by varying the depth, area, and distribution of these cavities, which can be arranged in specific patterns to optimize tissue paper production.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If through-air drying (TAD) technology is used to manufacture tissue paper, then the tissue paper achieves good properties (bulk, softness, uniformity), but the process consumes very high energy
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies preliminary action by pressing the fibrous web through a press nip with a texturing fabric before the drying stage. This pre-compression and texturing action modifies the web structure in advance, allowing for reduced energy consumption during subsequent drying while maintaining acceptable tissue paper properties. The press nip pre-establishes the bulk and texture characteristics that would otherwise require extensive energy-intensive drying to achieve.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical parameters of the fibrous web by applying mechanical pressure and texture through the press nip. The texturing fabric imprints a three-dimensional structure with specific parameters (cavity depth 0.10-0.9 mm, land area percentage) onto the web, altering its density, bulk, and surface properties. These parameter changes enable the tissue paper to achieve desired properties with lower energy input during drying.
2Use of energy by moving object
If a texturing fabric is pressed into a wet fibrous web to create three-dimensional structure, then energy consumption is reduced, but control over tissue paper properties becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies local quality by creating specific localized features in the texturing fabric - cavities (dots) with controlled depth (0.10-0.9 mm) separated by land areas with specific surface percentages (30%-80%). This local differentiation allows precise control over where and how the web is compressed and textured. By varying the cavity depth, size, and distribution patterns in specific regions of the texturing fabric, the invention enables fine-tuned control over tissue paper properties such as bulk, softness, absorbency, and surface characteristics while maintaining reduced energy consumption.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables the production of tissue paper with desired properties while reducing energy consumption, allowing for customization of dot designs to match specific product goals and optimize energy efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
a fibrous web is passed through at least one press nip together with a texturing belt having a side that faces the fibrous web in the press nip
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a method of making tissue paper in a machine for making tissue paper and in which method a fibrous web is passed through at least one press nip together with a texturing belt. The texturing belt has a side that faces the fibrous web in the press nip and the surface of that side is a web contacting surface that is textured. The texturing belt can be selected such that the tissue paper that is manufactured obtains desired values for one or several parameters. The invention also relates to a machine for making tissue paper. The machine comprises a forming section, a drying cylinder, a press having a first press unit and a second press unit between which press units a nip is formed. The second press unit is preferably a shoe roll. The machine also comprises a drying cylinder which is arranged to be heated from the inside by hot steam and on which a fibrous web can be dried by heat. A texturing belt is arranged to run in a loop through the nip and to the drying cylinder such that a fibrous web can be carried by the texturing belt to the drying cylinder and transferred to the drying cylinder. The side of the texturing belt that contacts the fibrous web comprises a layer of a polymer material such that the polymer material will contact the fibrous web and cavities are formed in that surface of the texturing belt that comes into contact with the fibrous web.