Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Low density tissue and towel paper products have been produced and consumed for many decades. Yet the present understanding of the science of tissue making is nascent. The globally growing demand for tissue products, particularly in expanding markets in Asia and South America, has spurred competition and empirical development of technologies in this manufacturing sector. Proprietary technologies emerging from the painstaking, and often costly, empirical studies are closely guarded by the manufacturers to retain competitive advantage in this growing sector of paper industry in Canada and worldwide.This proposal builds on a collaborative partnership has been established in 2015 between UBC researchers and industrial partners: Kruger products inc. (leading tissue producer in North America,) FPInnovations (the flagship Canadian organization for research and innovation in forest sector and bio products,) Solenis (a leading supplier of chemicals used in tissue production). The combined knowledge and expertise of these partners will ensure that the outcomes of this collaboration are impactful and relevant to industrial practice.We seek to develop fundamental mechanics models for the manufacturing process, measure and quantify the crepe structure this process imparts to a tissue, and the eventual impact on macroscopic properties of a tissue product, such as tensile strength, modulus, softness and stretch. Concurrently, experimental studies on lab scale and industrial scale processes will be undertaken to drive the modelling process. A combination of analytical and numerical modelling will be combined with critical experimental studies to gain a comprehensive understanding of the tissue making processes relevant to creping. Successful realization of the goals of this project will spur innovations in tissue industry in Canada.