A surprisingly simple and rapid methodology for large-area, lightweight, and thin laminate coatings with remarkable moisture barrier properties is introduced. Commercially available paperboards are ...coated with thin layers of nanocellulose. The nanocellulose coating induces a surface smoothening effect on the coated sheets as characterized by environmental scanning electron microscopy and white light interferometry. A moisture-protective layer of renewable alkyd resins is deposited on the nanocellulose precoated sheets using a water-borne dispersion coating process or lithographic printing. Through an auto-oxidation process, the applied alkyd resins are transformed into moisture sealant layers. The moisture barrier properties are characterized in detail by water vapor permeability measurements at different levels of relative humidity. The water vapor barrier properties of the nanocellulose precoated substrates were significantly improved by thin layers of renewable alkyd resins. The effect of the alkyd resin properties, coating technologies, and base paper substrates on the final barrier performance of the sheets were studied. It was found that the nanocellulose coating had a notable effect on the homogeneity and barrier performance of the alkyd resin layers and in particular those alkyd resin layers that were applied by printing. The concept is environmentally friendly, energy-efficient, and economic and is ready for scaling-up via continuous roll-to-roll processes. Large-scale renewable coatings applicable for sustainable packaging solutions are foreseen.
Cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) are mixed with plasticizers; sorbitol and glycerol, through high-pressure homogenization to prepare multifunctional biohybrid films. The resulting plasticized films ...obtained after solvent evaporation are strong, flexible and demonstrate superior toughness and optical transparency. The oxygen barrier properties of the biohybrid films outperform commercial packaging materials. The sorbitol-plasticized CNF films possess excellent oxygen barrier properties, 0.34 cm
·μm/m
·day·kPa at 50 % relative humidity, while significantly enhancing the toughness and fracture strength of the films. CNF films plasticized by 20 wt.% of sorbitol and glycerol could before rupture, be strained to about 9 % and 12 %, respectively. The toughness of the plasticized films increased by ca. 300 % compared to the pristine CNF film. Furthermore, the water vapor barrier properties of the biohybrid films were also preserved by the addition of sorbitol. CNF films plasticized with sorbitol was demonstrated to simultaneously enhance fracture toughness, work of fracture, softening behavior while preserving gas barrier properties. Highly favorable thermomechanical characteristics were found with CNF/sorbitol combinations and motivate further work on this material system, for instance as a thermoformable matrix in biocomposite materials. The unique combination of excellent oxygen barrier behavior, formability and optical transparency suggest the potential of these CNF-based films as an alternative in flexible packaging of oxygen sensitive devices like thin-film transistors or organic light-emitting diode displays, gas storage applications and as barrier coatings/laminations in packaging applications, including free-standing films as aluminium-replacement in liquid board and primary packaging, as replacement for polyethylene (PE) in wrapping paper, e. g. sweats and confectionary.
This paper summarizes chemical technologies aimed at making bulking fibres, a technology mainly practiced in the area of tissue and hygiene products but also highly relevant for board products made ...by sheet stratification containing bulking layers in the middle of the board in order to improve the bending stiffness of the board. There is a long history of different ways to make bulking fibres albeit the fact that such technologies have scarcely been used for commercial stratified board (apart from a variety of different pulp types), but more in tissue and hygiene products. The objective is to review the very different approaches that may be used for the purpose of making bulking fibres.
Print mottle is a serious and yet common print defect in offset printing. An imbalance between the feed of fountain solution and the ability of the paper substrate to absorb and transport this water ...away from the surface can cause moisture/water interference problems. In the study presented here, we have investigated the uniformity of aqueous absorption and coating structure of pilot-coated papers with different types and dosages of dispersants and linked this to print mottle and uncovered areas (UCA). In earlier studies, the print quality of these papers indicated that a moderate addition of excess dispersant caused ink refusal, ink-lift-off (ink-surface adhesion failure) and water-interference mottle when printing at elevated fountain feed. In the present study, we have shown that a majority of the samples with uneven water/moisture absorption and an uneven burn-out reflectance tended to have more severe printing problems related to surface-moisture/water.An aqueous staining technique was used to characterise the absorption non-uniformities. This method has been developed previously with focus on absorption of flexographic water-based inks but can clearly give relevant information also for offset printing, when it comes to moisture/water interference mottle.
The interaction between a liquid and a paper surface is important for a number of paper treatment processes, where absorption is of special significance during printing. Many absorption measurement ...techniques use a large available volume of liquid to characterise absorption, when compared to the volume of the coating. The uniformity of the absorption is also seldom characterised. We have developed a new technique, which is presented in this article, to study the uniformity of absorption of a small amount of liquid. This technique is based on the short-time absorption (tenth of a second) of a coloured liquid, the blotting of excess liquid and a characterisation of the pattern of the stain. This method made it possible to detect differences among coating layers with different compositions. In many cases, the absorption non-uniformity could be linked to variations in the coating thickness and/or wettability. The thinner and thicker areas of the coating layers were interpreted as having different pore structures. Neither the coating thickness nor the wettability could provide a full explanation, which showed the need to develop a method to characterise absorption uniformity instead of only relying on measuring the total absorption potential.
This paper reports on a special pilot coating and industrial printing trial designed to gain fundamental knowledge on ink adhesion failure on coated papers. We found that ink adhesion failure ...resulted in white spots without ink on the paper, referred to as uncovered areas and these spots gave print mottle problems. The white spots were due to two fundamentally different types of ink adhesion failure. One is the well-known ink rejection, which simply means that ink is not transferred to the surface. The other is a new type of ink adhesion failure, confirming a previous hypothesis suggested from laboratory observations. We refer to this as ink-lift-off adhesion failure, meaning that ink initially deposited on the paper surface becomes lifted off from the surface in a subsequent print unit. Adhesion failure by this mechanism was seen to occur more frequently than failure due to the well-known ink rejection.
An investigation of the impact of particle size on the mechanical retention of particles in a fibre network has been conducted. The particles used were five sets of quartz particle fractions having ...fairly narrow particle size distributions with average particle size ranging from a few μm to around 100 μm. The particles were used to model flocculated filler aggregates as part of a larger study of the effect of pre-flocculation on mechanical retention. Pre-flocculation of the filler is a possible strategy to increase the filler content of paper without deterioration of strength properties. A modified laboratory hand sheet former, known as the Rapid Drainage Device (RDD) was used. The major modification consisted of a long pipe that acted as a suction leg, which provides a dewatering vacuum at the same level as on a paper machine. The experimental results showed that mechanical filler retention increased linearly with particle size and grammage of the fibre layer above a critical grammage which depended on particle size. The linear relation was also seen in a pilot scale trial on the FEX pilot-paper machine at Innventia. During this trial fine paper was produced using pre-flocculated filler where the mean particle size of the flocs and fibres was measured in the flow to the headbox. The results from this pilot trial show that mechanical retention is an important part of the total filler retention. Drainage time and therefore drainage resistance increased with the grammage of the fibre layer and amount of quartz particle added. Drainage time, compared at total grammage (i.e. the sum of fibre and quartz particle grammage) was lowest for a fraction of medium-sized particles, with a median size of 35 mm. There was no obvious effect on retention or drainage resistance of a change in the dewatering pressure from 27.5 to 41.5 kPa.
Digital printing using high-speed inkjet technology puts heavy demands on paper's ability to rapidly absorb the liquid. This is important for both the runability during the printing process and for ...the print quality. In this article, the dynamics of inkjet droplet absorption and penetration is discussed. The LucasWashburn equation has been applied to experimental results from inkjet printing on paper. The ink absorption on different paper grades is discussed in terms of the physical properties of the surface such as surface energy, surface roughness and porosity. The results of this study indicate that ASA used as internal sizing reduces the absorption speed of water based dye inkjet ink and that evaporation affects the result. The Lucas-Washburn equation can be used to some extent for describing micro-scale droplet absorption into paper, depending on the properties of the paper.
