All Paper Grades

Press Section
Press Release

New top felt surface from Heimbach

O. Kääpä (Dipl.-Ing.) Strategic Product Manager Pressing, Heimbach GmbH & Co. KG, olli.kaapa@heimbach.com
Lutz Schröder (Dipl. Ing. FH) Marketing, Heimbach GMBH & Co. KG, lutz.schroeder@heimbach.com

Heimbach – wherever paper is made.

GROUP
New top felt surface from Heimbach

Introduction Technological basis

Optimal printability of paper and board is more than One of the prerequisites for improving printability
ever a requirement of the customer and end user. of paper and board is the improvement of its surface
This applies increasingly also to the “simpler” grades. properties. Influences on these are firstly the evenness
of fibre distribution which is dependent on the
What we consider to be print quality depends on forming process and equally on the forming fabrics
the subjective evaluation of several simultaneous used in this process. SSB fabrics from the Heimbach
visual criteria. Firstly, the graphic or photographic PRIMOBOND range have proved successful in this
presentation itself, the apparent quality of the paper sense both in the manufacture of graphic and
used, the professionalism of reproduction and finally packaging grades.
the combination of those criteria which we use
to assess pure print quality. The majority of these In the press section the sheet surface is influenced
criteria are even measurable. Colour density and on the one hand by the (ideally minimal) degree of
contrast, alignment with colour norms, colour gamut, impression from the base weave and/or the batt
evenness of colour application, print gloss, surface of the press felt. The other major influence
registration or print sharpness. on the paper surface is the dewatering process. This
involves the influences of both hydraulic pressure
The translation of these quality criteria into printing and those of speed and regularity of dewatering,
practice depends substantially on the characteristics of which the latter is substantially determined by
of the paper. Those that influence the printing result the structure of the batt.
include surface quality, uniformity, basis weight /
volume, porosity /absorbency and dimensional Influences on base weave and batt surface
stability. The comparison in Ill. 1 highlights the marking
influence of the paper characteristics on the print The cause of base weave marking can generally be
quality. This presentation is concerned primarily with attributed to two factors. 1. from an uneven paper
the surface properties of the paper. side generally from woven base structures with too

Paper properties Print quality

Paper Gloss Density & Contrast

Colour & Brightness Colour gamut

Porosity / Absorbency Evenness

Uniformity /
Print Gloss
Formation

Surface Roughness Print Sharpness

Basis Weight Tone Graduation

Dimensional Stability Registration

Ill.1 Paper properties – Print quality

01
New top felt surface from Heimbach

high knuckles at the crossing points, and 2. from a batt surface composed of special fibres and has
an inadequate “mechanical” neutralisation of these been shown to provide an exceptionally smooth
irregularities by the covering batt surface. and absolutely homogeneous surface character
(Ill. 2).
For the prevention of such weave marking Heimbach
has the appropriate technical means. For example
knuckle-free non-woven base structures or woven
structures with minimal knuckles made from
flat monofilaments combined with resilient batt
surfaces as additional protection from base weave
strike-through.
Ill.2 ATROTOP batt surface from Heimbach

The causes of batt surface marking can be traced Whereas “hills and valleys” can be discerned in the
to an inadequately even batt surface and / or an surfaces of previous felts, the topography of the
uneven distribution of the batt fibres on the surface newly developed felt surface assisted by a special
or in the interior of the batt. manufacturing process is extremely smooth (Ill. 3).

The improvement in the paper surface could be Technological note: this new quality of felt surface
achieved at least in part relatively simply by the use is not achieved by the use of excessively fine fibres,
of still finer batt fibres. However, the current fact is but by the unique manufacturing process. That is
that such felts would become too dense. for an important elementary reason: the felt surface
must retain its active dewatering character.
In order to meet the increasing demands on
printability and paper surface Heimbach has In addition to a possible mechanical impression of
developed a new style of felt surface. ATROTOP is the press felt on the paper surface the dynamic

11 dtex 6,7 dtex

µm 500

250 Hills

-250 Valleys

-500

ATROTOP

Ill.3 Comparison: Topography of batt surfaces

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New top felt surface from Heimbach

behaviour of the water under high pressure in the

Hydraulic pressure in press nip of roll press MD
with compression and relaxation behaviour
press nip is of great importance. A result of hills and
sheet
valleys in the felt and paper surface would be
the hydraulic development of grooves and furrows fibre batt

in the paper sheet.. All risks of marking are

substantially eliminated by the extremely even new
base

felt surface from Heimbach with appropriate base

and protective batt layers.
fibre batt

Influences of nip load and dewatering

Heimbach FeltSim

In comparison with the previously mentioned weave

Ill.4 Hydraulic pressure in press nip of roll press
or batt marking the causes of an inadequate paper
surface as a result of a poor “Efficiency of Dewatering” in general and its surface in particular. Expressed
are technically more complex. In considering today’s simply – the press felt must dewater as efficiently
high speeds – increasing trend – the influence of as possible 50 mm of the paper sheet in 1/500th
the dewatering process on the characteristics of the of a second and at the same time leave behind a
sheet is increasingly dependent on the cross-sectional perfect paper surface. This requires – assuming
structure of the press felt. optimal saturation – that the whole felt structure
is able in this extremely short time interval to take
Firstly, a basic calculation can be made of the available up evenly an appropriately high water volume for
time interval for the dewatering process. In the press the grade concerned (- and obviously to be able
nip of a conventional roll press the actual dewatering immediately to release it again).
process takes place within a “distance” of about
50 mm (Ill. 4). In a 1500m/min machine paper sheet The prerequisite for the initiation of such a high
and felt pass through the nip in 1/500th of a second. speed water take-up is a paper side batt surface
Within this minimal time interval the felt structure which at the same time is extremely smooth,
affects in its micro-range the properties of the sheet optimally regular, very fine and yet open (Ill. 5).

ATROTOP felt surface

MD

Ill.5 ATROTOP: High speed water acceptance

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 New top felt surface from Heimbach

“Extremely smooth” to ensure that as many contact Case studies

points as possible with the sheet initiate the capillary Case studies from the installation of the new felt
water flow into the felt. “Optimally regular” to surface indicate a variety of successes. These
ensure that the water flow is as even as possible successes include not only process improvement
over the whole felt surface. “Very fine” to provide and – in line with the aims – quality improvements
the water with as many dewatering channels as to the paper, but also to a considerable extent
possible and to avoid damaging horizontal flow. improvements in efficiency.
And finally “open” to allow handling of the necessary
water volume in the minimal time interval. Two examples from practice support this.

The subsequent course of the dewatering process A fine paper machine had a consistently high pulp
through the felt into the water-removing elements usage in order to achieve acceptable bulk figures.
is not being covered here. Obviously Heimbach has After installing ATROTOP felts the consumption
the relevant technologies in various felt concepts of chemical pulp was reduced on average by 4 g/m2
suited to nip-dewatering (Ill.5) and/or Uhle box whilst at the same time obtaining very good volume
dewatering. In combination with the newly values (Ill. 6). The use of the new felt surface brought
developed felt surface they offer the ideal clothing a saving of over 20t chemical pulp per day and
for first class paper surface characteristics. at the same time significantly improved the sheet
surface.
The new ATROTOP surface provides all preconditions
for a maximum “Efficiency of Dewatering”. The felt On a board machine the smoothness figures needed
surface creates in this way a combination of process to be improved. After installing ATROTOP in
features to provide a precise, balanced dewatering both the top and bottom positions a reduction of
pressure in the paper and a rapid, even dewatering up to 20% in the Bendtsen values was obtained
resulting in an extremely even dry content across (Ill. 7). Simultaneously two-sidedness was reduced
the whole sheet. to virtually nil.

cm3/ g Bulk values

1,36
1,34
1,32
1,30
1,28
1,26
1,24
1,22
1,20
1,18
1,16 ATROTOP installation
1,14
1,12
1,10
Life

Ill.6 Development of bulk values

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 New top felt surface from Heimbach

ml / min Smoothness values (Bendtsen)

300

250

200

150

100
ATROTOP installation
50

0
Life

Ill.7 Development of smoothness values

In the case of special demands for printability

ATROTOP has performed exceptionally in practice.
Combined with knuckle-free, non-woven base
structures the new felt surface from Heimbach offers
an attractive solution to customers for better paper
characteristics.
50/0706GB

05