Thursday, June 30, 2005
FiberMark Announces Reorganization
FiberMark recently submitted a reorganization plan to its major creditors and bondholders. Among the details in the proposal included closing the Hughesville, NJ facility and shutting down 1 of 2 paper machines in Warren, NJ. FiberMark produces paper for the office, school, packaging and publishing markets.
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Crane's - Papermaking at Crane with Cotton
Crane's - Papermaking at Crane:
"Papermaking at Crane & Co., Inc.
Making 100% Cotton Paper Since 1801
In some ways, papermaking at Crane has not changed greatly since 1801, when sheets were formed by hand. We still feel it is a highly skilled craft where great care must be taken to select the best raw materials and transform them into elegant and strong papers. Modern machinery and technology now play a significant role in crafting that final product, but it is the care and skill of the papermaker that really matters. Let's take a tour of a Crane papermaking facility.
First of all, Crane's make their paper from cotton. They don't cut down trees, and the cotton for our paper doesn't come directly from the field either. Crane uses the small scraps left over from the manufacture of cotton garments, such as jeans and t-shirts. These recovered scraps, or rags, as we call them, would otherwise be sent to landfills. So, not only are trees spared when you buy Crane paper, but you are helping with another growing environmental concern: overburdened landfills. We also use something called linters, the tiny fibers adhering to the cotton seed, which used to be thrown away by cotton seed oil producers. Nothing is wasted because the fibers from cotton are such an excellent raw material for paper.
To prepare the cotton for papermaking, it is first mixed with large amounts of water and sent to a piece of equipment called the beater. A beater is like a giant blender. (Crane's range up to 5,000 gallons.) In the beater, the cotton fibers are frayed between rotating steel blades and a lava bed plate, hence the term beaten to a pulp. Don't try this at home with old t-shirts and your food processor! The care taken with this step makes a huge difference in the quality of the paper.
After being processed in the beater, the cotton fibers are suspended in a solution of about 99% water and 1% fiber that we call stock. On the paper machine, this mixture is sprayed onto a wide belt of wire mesh called the fourdrinier, running at several hundred feet per minute. Much of the water is removed by gravity and suction and then reused in the papermaking process.
While the fibers are still very wet, a cylinder called a dandy roll, covered with a wire pattern, subtly rearranges the fibers to make the watermark. Barely able to support itself yet, the paper is picked up by a continuous felt cloth and passed through rolls that squeeze out more of the water, like a ringer on an old-fashioned washing machine. The paper then moves through a series of steam-heated cylinders where it dries completely.
In order to effectively take ink, either from a printing press, laser printer or a pen, a special coating must be applied to the paper called sizing. The paper must be dried once again by another series of heated cylinders before it is collected on a large roll at the end of the paper machine.
From start to finish the paper travels approximately a quarter of a mile through the machine. The rolls are either shipped directly to the customer or cut into large sheets. Once these sheets pass our rigorous inspection, they can be sent directly to paper merchants or converted into stationery.
At Crane's Stationery Factory, envelopes are cut, lined and folded. Crane's is are the only paper company that converts its own envelopes. Sheets are trimmed and, perhaps, bordered with colored paint or gilded in silver or gold leaf by hand. Some sheets are sent to Crane's engraving plant where they are skillfully transformed into elegant thank-you cards, invitations, or holiday greeting cards. Back at the Stationery Factory, finished products are tied with ribbons, assembled in boxes and packaged for shipment to fine stationers across the country.
"Papermaking at Crane & Co., Inc.
Making 100% Cotton Paper Since 1801
In some ways, papermaking at Crane has not changed greatly since 1801, when sheets were formed by hand. We still feel it is a highly skilled craft where great care must be taken to select the best raw materials and transform them into elegant and strong papers. Modern machinery and technology now play a significant role in crafting that final product, but it is the care and skill of the papermaker that really matters. Let's take a tour of a Crane papermaking facility.
First of all, Crane's make their paper from cotton. They don't cut down trees, and the cotton for our paper doesn't come directly from the field either. Crane uses the small scraps left over from the manufacture of cotton garments, such as jeans and t-shirts. These recovered scraps, or rags, as we call them, would otherwise be sent to landfills. So, not only are trees spared when you buy Crane paper, but you are helping with another growing environmental concern: overburdened landfills. We also use something called linters, the tiny fibers adhering to the cotton seed, which used to be thrown away by cotton seed oil producers. Nothing is wasted because the fibers from cotton are such an excellent raw material for paper.
To prepare the cotton for papermaking, it is first mixed with large amounts of water and sent to a piece of equipment called the beater. A beater is like a giant blender. (Crane's range up to 5,000 gallons.) In the beater, the cotton fibers are frayed between rotating steel blades and a lava bed plate, hence the term beaten to a pulp. Don't try this at home with old t-shirts and your food processor! The care taken with this step makes a huge difference in the quality of the paper.
After being processed in the beater, the cotton fibers are suspended in a solution of about 99% water and 1% fiber that we call stock. On the paper machine, this mixture is sprayed onto a wide belt of wire mesh called the fourdrinier, running at several hundred feet per minute. Much of the water is removed by gravity and suction and then reused in the papermaking process.
While the fibers are still very wet, a cylinder called a dandy roll, covered with a wire pattern, subtly rearranges the fibers to make the watermark. Barely able to support itself yet, the paper is picked up by a continuous felt cloth and passed through rolls that squeeze out more of the water, like a ringer on an old-fashioned washing machine. The paper then moves through a series of steam-heated cylinders where it dries completely.
In order to effectively take ink, either from a printing press, laser printer or a pen, a special coating must be applied to the paper called sizing. The paper must be dried once again by another series of heated cylinders before it is collected on a large roll at the end of the paper machine.
From start to finish the paper travels approximately a quarter of a mile through the machine. The rolls are either shipped directly to the customer or cut into large sheets. Once these sheets pass our rigorous inspection, they can be sent directly to paper merchants or converted into stationery.
At Crane's Stationery Factory, envelopes are cut, lined and folded. Crane's is are the only paper company that converts its own envelopes. Sheets are trimmed and, perhaps, bordered with colored paint or gilded in silver or gold leaf by hand. Some sheets are sent to Crane's engraving plant where they are skillfully transformed into elegant thank-you cards, invitations, or holiday greeting cards. Back at the Stationery Factory, finished products are tied with ribbons, assembled in boxes and packaged for shipment to fine stationers across the country.
Teaching About Paper and Recycling
TAPPI -- the association for the pulp, paper, and converting industry offers on this site brochures such as:
Are We Running Out of Trees?
How Are Trees Grown for Paper?
Why Do Some Paper Mills Have an Odor?
How is Paper Recycled?
What’s in a Tree?
How Much Paper can be Made from a Tree?
Why Recycle?
How Are Corrugated Boxes Made?
And, they offer (sell for only one dollar) posters on recycling paper that are perfect for the classroom, teachers materials, CD-ROMS and educational videos on:
Paper: The Video
This 12-minute video takes a light-hearted, fun-filled look at the ways paper has influenced society, past and present. A valuable discussion tool for students and teachers, the video spotlights the critical role paper plays in our everyday lives.
Modern Papermaking
Four-minute overview of the paper manufacturing process. Great for classroom visits and tour groups. All ages.
Recycling: Lost and Found
Four-minute overview of the industrial paper recycling process. Great for classroom visits and tour groups. All ages.
The Paper Trail - The History of Paper
Four-minute overview of the history of paper. Great for classroom visits and tour groups. All ages.
Are We Running Out of Trees?
How Are Trees Grown for Paper?
Why Do Some Paper Mills Have an Odor?
How is Paper Recycled?
What’s in a Tree?
How Much Paper can be Made from a Tree?
Why Recycle?
How Are Corrugated Boxes Made?
And, they offer (sell for only one dollar) posters on recycling paper that are perfect for the classroom, teachers materials, CD-ROMS and educational videos on:
Paper: The Video
This 12-minute video takes a light-hearted, fun-filled look at the ways paper has influenced society, past and present. A valuable discussion tool for students and teachers, the video spotlights the critical role paper plays in our everyday lives.
Modern Papermaking
Four-minute overview of the paper manufacturing process. Great for classroom visits and tour groups. All ages.
Recycling: Lost and Found
Four-minute overview of the industrial paper recycling process. Great for classroom visits and tour groups. All ages.
The Paper Trail - The History of Paper
Four-minute overview of the history of paper. Great for classroom visits and tour groups. All ages.
Making Paper
Making Paper:
Typically, trees used for papermaking are specifically grown and harvested like a crop for that purpose. To meet tomorrow's demand, forest products companies and private landowners (in Wisconsin) plant millions of new seedlings every year.
To begin the process, logs are passed through a debarker, where the bark is removed, and through chippers, where spinning blades cut the wood into 1" pieces. Those wood chips are then pressure-cooked with a mixture of water and chemicals in a digester.
Used paper is another important source of paper fiber. Thanks to curbside recycling programs in many communities, we recover 40% of all paper used in America for recycling and reuse. The paper is shredded and mixed with water.
The pulp is washed, refined, cleaned and sometimes bleached, then turned to slush in the beater. Color dyes, coatings and other additives are mixed in, and the pulp slush is pumped onto a moving wire screen.
Computerized sensors and state-of-the-art control equipment monitor each stage of the process.
As the pulp travels down the screen, water is drained away and recycled.
The resulting crude paper sheet, or web, is squeezed between large rollers to remove most of the remaining water and ensure smoothness and uniform thickness. The semidry web is then run through heated dryer rollers to remove the remaining water.
Waste water is carefully cleaned and purified before its release or reuse. Fiber particles and chemicals are filtered out and burned to provide additional power for the mill.
Papermakers carefully test for such things as uniformity of color and surface, water resistance, and ink holding ability.
The finished paper is then wound into large rolls, which can be 30 feet wide and weigh close to 25 tons. A slitter cuts the paper into smaller, more manageable rolls, and the paper is ready for use.
Papermaking is one of the most capital intensive industries in the nation, investing over $100,000 in equipment for each employee. The largest papermaking machines are over 32 feet wide, 550 feet long and can produce over 1,000 miles of paper a day."
Typically, trees used for papermaking are specifically grown and harvested like a crop for that purpose. To meet tomorrow's demand, forest products companies and private landowners (in Wisconsin) plant millions of new seedlings every year.
To begin the process, logs are passed through a debarker, where the bark is removed, and through chippers, where spinning blades cut the wood into 1" pieces. Those wood chips are then pressure-cooked with a mixture of water and chemicals in a digester.
Used paper is another important source of paper fiber. Thanks to curbside recycling programs in many communities, we recover 40% of all paper used in America for recycling and reuse. The paper is shredded and mixed with water.
The pulp is washed, refined, cleaned and sometimes bleached, then turned to slush in the beater. Color dyes, coatings and other additives are mixed in, and the pulp slush is pumped onto a moving wire screen.
Computerized sensors and state-of-the-art control equipment monitor each stage of the process.
As the pulp travels down the screen, water is drained away and recycled.
The resulting crude paper sheet, or web, is squeezed between large rollers to remove most of the remaining water and ensure smoothness and uniform thickness. The semidry web is then run through heated dryer rollers to remove the remaining water.
Waste water is carefully cleaned and purified before its release or reuse. Fiber particles and chemicals are filtered out and burned to provide additional power for the mill.
Papermakers carefully test for such things as uniformity of color and surface, water resistance, and ink holding ability.
The finished paper is then wound into large rolls, which can be 30 feet wide and weigh close to 25 tons. A slitter cuts the paper into smaller, more manageable rolls, and the paper is ready for use.
Papermaking is one of the most capital intensive industries in the nation, investing over $100,000 in equipment for each employee. The largest papermaking machines are over 32 feet wide, 550 feet long and can produce over 1,000 miles of paper a day."
Friday, June 24, 2005
Freight Rates all Increasing
One of the important cost components to paper manufacture includes freight rates. Mills which produce the
paper grades are typically located in remote locations. Therefore, shipments for both in bound (for raw materials) and out bound (product to end users) tend to be many miles.
Trucking rates, Air transporation, Water, and Rail have all experienced price increases. Many blame the high cost
of fuel (approaching $60/barrel). This continues to place cost pressures on the paper producers.
paper grades are typically located in remote locations. Therefore, shipments for both in bound (for raw materials) and out bound (product to end users) tend to be many miles.
Trucking rates, Air transporation, Water, and Rail have all experienced price increases. Many blame the high cost
of fuel (approaching $60/barrel). This continues to place cost pressures on the paper producers.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
WIND MILLS POWER WRITING SYSTEM
Mohawk Paper Mills announced that the entire Strathmore Writing System,
including Strathmore Writing, the #1 selling 25% cotton fiber paper in
the U.S., is now manufactured with wind power.
Mohawk purchased an additional 35 million kWh of wind power on June 1
for The Strathmore Writing System, manufactured at the non-polluting
Beckett Mill in Hamilton, Ohio. This commitment allows Mohawk, the only
paper mills in the U.S. using wind energy to manufacture paper, to join
the highest level EPA Green Power Partnership Leadership Club.
For more information on The Strathmore Writing System and Mohawk's use
of wind power, please visit http://www.mohawkpaper.com or call 1-800
THE MILL.
including Strathmore Writing, the #1 selling 25% cotton fiber paper in
the U.S., is now manufactured with wind power.
Mohawk purchased an additional 35 million kWh of wind power on June 1
for The Strathmore Writing System, manufactured at the non-polluting
Beckett Mill in Hamilton, Ohio. This commitment allows Mohawk, the only
paper mills in the U.S. using wind energy to manufacture paper, to join
the highest level EPA Green Power Partnership Leadership Club.
For more information on The Strathmore Writing System and Mohawk's use
of wind power, please visit http://www.mohawkpaper.com or call 1-800
THE MILL.
Monday, June 20, 2005
State of the Uncoated Paper Market
Many industry experts forecasted prices to drop in June.... and they are! Cut-size paper (business papers used in copiers) slipped $20/ton, and offset rolls (for publications) declined $10/ton -this is an addition to the $20/ton
Decline in May. Even value added grades are
getting squeezed with 50lb opaque selling $50/ton less than April
levels. Some mills, like International Paper are doing their part to try to support the market by
closing 3 machines in recent months with 430,000 tpy of capacity. IP
is also taking 120,000 tons of market downtime over the next 3 months.
In global markets, the uncoated prices in both Europe and Latin America are 'all over', but
labor issues in Finland could take some of the pressure off of prices (curtailed supply).
Decline in May. Even value added grades are
getting squeezed with 50lb opaque selling $50/ton less than April
levels. Some mills, like International Paper are doing their part to try to support the market by
closing 3 machines in recent months with 430,000 tpy of capacity. IP
is also taking 120,000 tons of market downtime over the next 3 months.
In global markets, the uncoated prices in both Europe and Latin America are 'all over', but
labor issues in Finland could take some of the pressure off of prices (curtailed supply).
Friday, June 17, 2005
Pulp Prices down .... again
North American prices for two grades of softwood kraft pulp declined this month on relatively weak demand for fine paper and competition among producers to move extra tonnage. Three grades of hardwood kraft saw mixed pricing, and levels did not fall as much as buyers had expected.
Paper Mills Finally Releasing Capital Dollars
A recent survey outlined top 20 North American mills will increase capital spending by 23%, or to $6billion, for 2005. It was pointed out that this is most likely NOT a return to ‘free spending’ but rather required spending. Most of the funds continue to be allocated to environmental mandates, cost savings projects and grade conversions. Many mills
Continue to review closing inefficient production and reducing staff.
Continue to review closing inefficient production and reducing staff.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Paper Market Information
Paper Grades
-Printing and Writing Papers
-Capacity peaked in 2000 to 27.6million tons
-by 2003 capacity was 25.5million tons
-Forecast for no new capacity through 2007
-Freesheet grades experienced largest curtailment (down 10% 2000 to 2004)
-Uncoated Freesheet capacity now at 13.7million tons
-Many industry experts predict decline in paper prices throughout 2005
-Printing and Writing Papers
-Capacity peaked in 2000 to 27.6million tons
-by 2003 capacity was 25.5million tons
-Forecast for no new capacity through 2007
-Freesheet grades experienced largest curtailment (down 10% 2000 to 2004)
-Uncoated Freesheet capacity now at 13.7million tons
-Many industry experts predict decline in paper prices throughout 2005
Finnish Paperworkers go back to work
The Finnish paper industry finalized an agreement for salaries of the striking Finnish Pulp and Paper workers. The salaries will increase by a total of more than 6% over 3 years. Salaries for working during Christmas and midsummer will be three times the normal rate and the annual work time will be shortened by 11 hours.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Badger Paper to Curtail Capacity
Badger Paper Company of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, announced it will indefinitely shut down its uncoated freesheet Fourdrinier paper machine. The paper machine produced business papers and school paper.
Finland Paper Mills continue to Strike
The Finnish Forest Industry Federation, which represents the pulp and paper industry, that the current lockout will continue through June. Finland is a large supplier of pulp and paper to the world. This has the potential of creating a shortage,
although demand begins to slow during the summer months.
although demand begins to slow during the summer months.
Pulp Prices Finally Decreasing
Several producers have reduced market pulp pricing for the second month in a row. Many pulp suppliers
lowered NBSK fiber by an additional $20/ton. List price for NBSK is now at $630/mt. Note: Softwood
fiber has been under more pressure than hardwood - therefore- the cost difference is less. Big new fear-
what will happen during the low summer months????
lowered NBSK fiber by an additional $20/ton. List price for NBSK is now at $630/mt. Note: Softwood
fiber has been under more pressure than hardwood - therefore- the cost difference is less. Big new fear-
what will happen during the low summer months????
Friday, June 03, 2005
Transportion Costs Continue to Increase
An important cost for paper manufacturers is freight. All major modes of transportation
reported 1Q05 increases. Trucking is up 5.5%; air increased by 2.1%; Water reported no change; and
rail is predicted to rise 6.3% for the year 2005.
reported 1Q05 increases. Trucking is up 5.5%; air increased by 2.1%; Water reported no change; and
rail is predicted to rise 6.3% for the year 2005.
Kohlberg & Co. Brings Back Thilmany Brand
Kohlberg & Co., which recently acquired the industrial papers business from International Paper (IP), has brought back a familiar name to the paper industry.
The old IP business will be called Thilmany LLC. The headquarters are based in Kaukauna, WI, the town where Oscar Thilmany founded the original Thilmany Pulp & Paper company in 1883. John Zuleger is the president and CEO, with Jack Rohrback serving as the chairman of the board of managers.
The old IP business will be called Thilmany LLC. The headquarters are based in Kaukauna, WI, the town where Oscar Thilmany founded the original Thilmany Pulp & Paper company in 1883. John Zuleger is the president and CEO, with Jack Rohrback serving as the chairman of the board of managers.
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