The development of paper machines, increasing machine speeds with new, mostly low basis weight and/or high ash content paper grades, as well as the fact that several trends regarding process items have increased the sensitivity of papermaking. At the same time, papermakers are looking for flexibility in the production line. We can say that with all PMs the biggest benefits with the lowest capital spending can be achieved by focusing on improved wet end management. In order to manage wet end chemistry on a paper machine, our goal is to control sub-process through which we can influence the operation of the entire wet end with maximum effect. Key measurements and controls are-white water consistency control which is the most effective way to control retention - charge demand measurement and control which takes care of concentration of the anionic material entering to PM -ash measurements and controls which are deeply related to retention and paper quality This paper presents and concentrates to two of these key controls ; retention and charge. The purpose of charge control is to give the process control the tools to react to changes caused by amount of dissolved and colloida material incoming to wet end system. It is called coagulation or fixing control. Retention control is then taking care of retention aid flow to the process by responding any changes seen in white water consistency. It is called flocculation control. Each of these solutions separately , and even more effectively all together, stabilize the wet end operations and so greatly improve the produced paper quality and machine runnability. Practical results will be presented and they are referring to the latest mill cases. We have developed the first wet end measuring system in the late 1980s and control solutions based on this modern measuring technology were completely updated in 1990s. This paper introduces the principle, operation , and results of our unique wet end analyzers (retention and charge ) which are at the level of automation solutions as a part of paper machine quality control Especially our newest member of the platform , on-line charge analyzer has reached and set new standards to the on-line charge monitoring.

The increasing functional needs of top-quality printing papers and packaging paperboards, and especially the rapid developments in electronic printing processes and various computer printers during past few years, set new targets and requirements for modern paper quality. Most of these paper grades of today have relatively high filler content, are moderately or heavily calendered , and have many coating layers for the best appearance and performance. In practice, this means that many of the traditional quality assurance methods, mostly designed to measure papers made of pure. native pulp only, can not reliably (or at all) be used to analyze or rank the quality of modern papers. Hence, introduction of new measurement techniques is necessary to assure and further develop the paper quality today and in the future. Paper formation , i.e. small scale (millimeter scale) variation of basis weight, is the most important quality parameter of paper-making due to its influence on practically all the other quality properties of paper. The ideal paper would be completely uniform so that the basis weight of each small point (area) measured would be the same. In practice, of course, this is not possible because there always exists relatively large local variations in paper. However, these small scale basis weight variations are the major reason for many other quality problems, including calender blacking uneven coating result, uneven printing result, etc. The traditionally used visual inspection or optical measurement of the paper does not give us a reliable understanding of the material variations in the paper because in modern paper making process the optical behavior of paper is strongly affected by using e.g. fillers, dye or coating colors. Futhermore, the opacity (optical density) of the paper is changed at different process stages like wet pressing and calendering. The greatest advantage of using beta transmission method to measure paper formation is that it can be very reliably calibrated to measure true basis weight variation of all kinds of paper and board, independently on sample basis weight or paper grade. This gives us the possibility to measure, compare and judge papers made of different raw materials, different color, or even to measure heavily calendered, coated or printed papers. Scientific research of paper physics has shown that the orientation of the top layer (paper surface) fibers of the sheet paly the key role in paper curling and cockling , causing the typical practical problems (paper jam) with modern fax and copy machines, electronic printing , etc. On the other hand, the fiber orientation at the surface and middle layer of the sheet controls the bending stiffness of paperboard . Therefore, a reliable measurement of paper surface fiber orientation gives us a magnificent tool to investigate and predict paper curling and coclking tendency, and provides the necessary information to finetune, the manufacturing process for optimum quality. many papers, especially heavily calendered and coated grades, do resist liquid and gas penetration very much, bing beyond the measurement range of the traditional instruments or resulting invonveniently long measuring time per sample . The increased surface hardness and use of filler minerals and mechanical pulp make a reliable, nonleaking sample contact to the measurement head a challenge of its own. Paper surface coating causes, as expected, a layer which has completely different permeability characteristics compared to the other layer of the sheet. The latest developments in sensor technologies have made it possible to reliably measure gas flow in well controlled conditions, allowing us to investigate the gas penetration of open structures, such as cigarette paper, tissue or sack paper, and in the low permeability range analyze even fully greaseproof papers, silicon papers, heavily coated papers and boards or even detect defects in barrier coatings ! Even nitrogen or helium may be used as the gas, giving us completely new possibilities to rank the products or to find correlation to critical process or converting parameters. All the modern paper machines include many on-line measuring instruments which are used to give the necessary information for automatic process control systems. hence, the reliability of this information obtained from different sensors is vital for good optimizing and process stability. If any of these on-line sensors do not operate perfectly ass planned (having even small measurement error or malfunction ), the process control will set the machine to operate away from the optimum , resulting loss of profit or eventual problems in quality or runnability. To assure optimum operation of the paper machines, a novel quality assurance policy for the on-line measurements has been developed, including control procedures utilizing traceable, accredited standards for the best reliability and performance.

Today's size of production operations in the packaging paper sector I sconstantly increasing , featuring integral processing systems, high-speed paper machines, and the increased marketing of lower basis weight products. The risk factors involved in these large investments lie more than ever in the available furnish potential and ongoing requirements for further closure of water loops and lower operating costs. A comparison is drawn between recovered paper furnish mixtures used in European mills with regard to fibre properties, strength potential and contaminant content, Both the furnish situation and development trends in modern fluting and testliner machines are instigating concept changes in stock preparation, the approach flow as well as in process water and rejects technology. Developments are currently focussed for example on more efficient debris separation using fine slotted screening, optimized refining , more systematic process water management with loop separation and integral water clarification as well as more efficient removal of microstickies, fillers and fines through appropriate combination of rejects handling and water clarification processes. Product quality differentiation depends decisively on strength characteristics as a function of refining , fines removal , paper machine technology, and sizing . Maximum availability of today's high speed paper machines and , as a result, cost effective production can be ensured by optimum balancing of all subsystems with in the overall concept and by reliable control of problems with contaminants and deposits.

Coating immobilization is the process by which the wet coating applied to paper or paperboard reaches the final form. A coating immobilization point is defined as the solids content reached during drying where no further redistribution of coating materials occurs. Good control of coating immobilization is important in producing coated paper and paperboard with consistent high quality. This paper discusses the technical concepts of how coatings immobilize, and describes the improtance of good immobilization control on coating holdout and coating structure, The use of soy protein polymers to modify the coating immobilization point is discussed . Soy proteins, because of their interaction with coating pigments , make a significant contribution to the immobilization characteristics of coatings. This technology gives the formulator options for changing the immobilization point to improve the performance of the coating . The importance of immobilization on coating uniformity, microporosity and sheet qualities is discussed, including binder migration mottle, gluing and print quality.