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The Paper News  Across the world there is a habitat loss caused by harvesting very close relationship timber from unmanaged forests, between climate, soils and students 'put back' by planting a vegetation. Climate influences hedgerow in their school grounds. both the soil and the vegetation and without one Students from Fairlop's three Year 5 How is paper made? there will not be the other. classes have been involved in a The location and distribution of wide range of fun activities designed to If you really want to know about paper and forests is tied in with this complex increase their knowledge and papermaking, you've got to get to know trees. system. awareness of the various habitat areas  There are two major forest regions within their school grounds. Trees are all around you. But have you ever of the world that occur both north really thought about how they're put together? Plants and animals have been studied, and south of the Equator. They're pretty cool. and pupils have been looking at ways of encouraging indigenous species to Just look at a tree trunk. The bark protects the make Fairlop Primary 'home'. inner wood from weather, insects and other School paper projects dangers. Just inside the bark is a thin layer Paper facts called the cambium, whose cells become both In the Spring term '98, Year 6 Students bark and inner wood. Next is sapwood, which at Davidson Junior took part in a Paper  The first recorded mention of carries nourishing sap throughout the tree the Project. playing cards was in A.D. 969 same way our blood flows through our bodies in China. to nourish us. Heartwood is the innermost part This project saw them carry out  About two-thirds of the raw of the trunk, and even though it isn't alive, it investigations into issues related to the provides the tree with strength and structure. production and use of paper, including material used to make paper in the U.S. comes from recovered the history of paper, production All that wood material is formed of fibers, tiny processes and ways of ‘reducing, re- paper that is recycled, and the cellulose strands stuck together with a natural using and recycling’. wood debris left from lumber adhesive material called lignin. It's by manufacturing. separating and reorganizing those fibers that we Some of the ways students re-used make paper. paper from their class were great fun,  The average American uses including constructing bridges, and about 749 pounds of paper and creating papier mache masks and other paper products each year. Consider the source items. Some paper is made brand-new from trees - either small trees harvested just for that Having looked at some of the issues of purpose, or from sawmill scraps left over when larger trees are made into lumber. A second

Information sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/landmarks/high/forests/index.html http://www.tappi.org/paperu/all_about_paper/paperMade.htm The Paper News source of papermaking material is recycled containers that require superior strength. But The logs are transported to the paper company fiber. Each year, more and more paper is the finish is rougher, and that's not as good for where they get a bath to rinse away dirt and recycled - its fibers used a second, third or writing, printing and many other uses. other impurities before being turned into small fourth time. Every year, about 50% of the paper chips of wood. The chips are then sorted Americans use is recovered for recycling and Happily, we can blend fiber from hardwoods according to size, and moved to the pulping other uses. and softwoods into a single paper, getting just operation, where they will be turned into pulp the combination of strength, whiteness, writing for making paper. Almost all of the paper you use today is made surface and other characteristics that we want. of wood fibers. Some specialty papers, like In the pulping stage, the individual wood fibers stationery and money, are made from linen, And that's just what we do! Most of the paper in the chips must be separated from one cotton, or other plants. Other papers contain a you see today is made from both hardwoods another. This can be accomplished using one or combination of cellulose fibers and synthetics and softwoods, a special blend for each more pulping techniques. The type of paper such as latex. Still others are made completely purpose. that's being made determines the pulping from synthetic materials such as polyolefine. process that is used. The finished pulp looks You might find latex in a waterproof mariner's We make newsprint to be opaque (that means like a mushy, watery solution. But if you look chart, or polyolefine in a rugged courier difficult to see through) - so you only see the at it under a microscope, you will see that the envelope. But you'll find natural fiber paper newspaper's comics, not the stock market report individual wood fibers have all been separated. almost everywhere! on the other side! Now it's time to make paper out of our pulp. That mainly means getting the water out of the Wood is wood? We make grocery bag paper strong, tissue soft, Yes, but it's not that simple. Each tree species wood-fiber soup, since this papermaking stock fine writing paper smooth. Even within the is about 99% water. The first area in which this grows a certain way, and that affects the way its same category, there's quite a range. Among wood looks and performs. Foresters divide takes place is called the wet end of the printing papers, for example, compare the thin papermaking machine. trees into two categories: hardwood and sheets of a Bible to the thick, tough pages of a softwood species. kid's picture book. First, papermakers spray the stock onto a long, Hardwood trees such as oaks and maples have wide screen, called a wire. Immediately, water The basic recipe - wood, water and energy - is begins to drain out the bottom of the wire. This wood with very short fibers. Paper made from adjusted to make just the paper that's needed. these species is weaker than that made from water is collected so that it can be reused over softwoods, but its surface is smoother, and and over again. Meanwhile, the pulp fibers are therefore better to write and print on. First, workers harvest trees, mostly from caught on the top side of the wire, and begin to special tree-growing areas called tree farms. bond together in a very thin mat. The fiber mat After the trees are removed, more trees are remaining on the wire is then squeezed between Softwood trees such as pine and spruce have planted in their place. While they are growing, felt-covered press rollers to absorb more of the wood with long fibers, and paper made from the young trees produce lots of oxygen, and water. this type of wood is much stronger. This paper provide great habitat for deer, quail, turkeys is ideal for making products like shipping and other wildlife.

Information sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/landmarks/high/forests/index.html http://www.tappi.org/paperu/all_about_paper/paperMade.htm The Paper News Even when this wet end work is over, the pulpy stuff on the wire is still about 60% water. But now it's time for the dry end.

In the dry end, huge metal cylinders are heated by filling them with steam. The wet paper, which can be up to 30 feet wide, passes through these hot rollers - sometimes dozens of them, and often in three to five groups. Heating and drying the wet sheet seals the fibers closer and closer together, turning them gradually from pulp into paper.

When you look at a piece of paper, can you find any difference in thickness in that single sheet? Probably not, thanks to a part of the paper machine called the calender - big, heavy cast iron rollers that press the drying paper smooth and uniform in thickness.

Sometimes the paper is coated, often with fine clay, to make it glossier and easier to print on.

A bit more drying, then rolled onto a big spool or reel, the pulp - a miraculous mat of fibers from trees - has become paper, ready for a thousand uses.

Information sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/landmarks/high/forests/index.html http://www.tappi.org/paperu/all_about_paper/paperMade.htm

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