The formation of Paper and the Measurement of Formation

In paper the evenness of planar distribution of mass in a small scale is called formation (orbetter:mass formation). Traditionally formation has been assessed visually, by looking the sheet of paper against transmitted light. Different kinds of optieal testers are being usd to obtain quantitative rankings htat would be independent of the observer but would well correspond to the visual assessment. However, various raw-material and process factors do influence light trans-mittance in paper and do impair the correspondence between basis weight and the optical formation measurement (or visual assessment). As the optical formation test methods do not incorporate an efficient calib ration routine, the formation of the sophisticated paper grades of today the is rather difficult to measure optically and may lead to erroneous results. It may be concluded that the optical measurement is not suitable for paper grades with high filler content. coating, heavy calendering or that are made of heavily beaten pulp, nordoes it apply for dyed or printed papers. For this reason, visual assessment and optical evaluation shoild be replaced with a measurement that gives reliable results independent on paper grode and manufacturing process. Formation measuremend based on beta radiation is suitable for all paper grades regardless to the material contents or process treatment. It is possible to measure even dyed or printed samples. Thonks to a sim ple and relioble calibration, the results are converted to real basis weight balues that remain reliable even with time. The only beta tester commercially available is the AMBERTEC Beta Formation Tester. Formation of paper does vary locally in the web. Typically there exists a formation profile, too similarly to other properties of paper. Therefore, formation should ？ ays be expressed as a mean of a sufficient amount of parallel determinations. All formation measurements should be calibrated against basis weight.