Every day we use paper. Post it notes, planners, scrapbook paper, books, newspapers, and more. Even in your regular marketing materials brochures, newsletters, flyers, lobby posters, just to name a few, print materials are common. We’ve discussed in our blogs over time how print marketing is most certainly “not dead” as well as all the different printing options you can have. So we decided to dig a little deeper for those of you who might be interested in the process of paper making. In case you missed the beginning, here (link to first article) is what happens first in the paper making process.
After the logs have been transported to the mill site, they must be stripped of their bark which is non suitable for making paper. This is achieved in the “wood room” which houses a debarker. A debarker is essentially a large rotating drum that tumbles the logs together to remove the bark. The logs continue through the drum and emerge bark free. The bark can later be re-purposed as fuel in the mills boiler. The debarked logs then proceed through the chipper. Several designs exists for chippers but all they really are is a series of cutting knives that rotate at high RPM to chip the logs quickly. Modern chippers produce a consistent and uniform sized chip which aids in the pulp making process. The chips are then transported via conveyors and/or forced air chip blowers to an outside chip pile or ideally chip silos where they await further processing in the pulp mill.
Stay tuned to learn about the different types of pulping processes!