History of paper
History of Paper
Before paper, there were all kinds of materials capable of holding the creations and messages people wanted to convey. From papyrus and parchment used around 1000 years ago in ancient Egypt, paper has undergone many transformations.
Papyrus is made from a herbaceous plant called Cyperus papyrus, which grows in the Nile Delta. The technological process was relatively simple, it was made by pressing thinly cut strips of the plant.
The parchment was made from the undyed skin of sheep, calves or goats. The technological process consisted of soaking and draining the hairs in limestone solution, then the skins were stretched and dried on wooden frames, after which the surface was prepared and treated with chalk and pumice stone. For books and other important documents, Vellum, a high quality parchment made from the skin of very young animals, lambs or calves, was used.
Paper as it is perceived today originated in the year 105 in China. As a manufacturing process, paper was made from a mixture of mulberry, flax, jute or hemp bark, sometimes, according to some writings, even bamboo and tree bark, boiled and mixed. The pulp was beaten with a wooden hammer and mixed with water. The mixture was passed through a sieve and left to dry.
In 604, papermaking began to spread to the rest of the world, with Korea being the first country after China to manufacture it.
In 610, the technique of papermaking spread to Japan when a Korean monk, Don-cho, migrated there. The Japanese adapted the technological process, using blackberry fibres and kozo plants as raw material for papermaking.
By 645, the technique had reached Tibet, from where it spread to India.
The Chinese, the inventors of paper, tried to stop the spread of the technique in order to keep their monopoly.
The year 704 marked the beginning of woodblock printing in China, and the world’s first printed newspaper was born.
The spread of paper in the Middle East and Europe
In 751, after the defeat of the Chinese army at the Battle of Talas, Chinese prisoners shared the secret of papermaking with the Arabs. This led to the creation of a paper-making industry in the Middle East, which began in Baghdad in 793. The Arabs, in turn, tried to take over the monopoly and prevent it from spreading to other parts of the world.
The technique of papermaking reached Egypt in the 10th century, where it began in raw form.
By 1150, the Spanish had brought the technique to Europe. This century also marked the beginning of the use of paper for packaging.
Later, the paper also reached Europe.
The first factory was opened in Spain in Jatira (Valencia) and was in operation in 1150. For a long time, paper was made from old clothes, rags and other textiles, but gradually the papermakers faced a worldwide shortage of these raw materials. It was followed by France, Germany and England where paper as a basic material was produced on an industrial scale. The Frenchman Antoine Ferchault de Reaumur suggested the use of wood after observing wasp hives. Thus wood pulp emerged as the main material in paper production.
In Romania, the first paper mills were built in Sibiu (1539) and Brasov (1546). The first paper mills date back to the 16th century, when in Transylvania, in 1539, a paper mill operated in Orlat, near Sibiu. In Moldavia, paper was produced from 1583 onwards, and in the
17th century it was also manufactured in Wallachia (in Câmpulung from 1643 and Călimănești from 1646).
The first large paper mills in Romania were opened in the 19th century in Bușteni in 1882 and in Bacău in 1886. The first paper machine in Romania to be used on an industrial scale was the one at AMBRO SA in Suceava (formerly Combinat de Hârtie și Celuloză, founded in 1962 and taken over by the ROSSMANN Group in 1996). The main raw material in papermaking was wood pulp obtained from hard or soft woods of poplar, chestnut, spruce,
fir or eucalyptus.
Manufacturing technology
The papermaking process involves a series of transformations that the pulp undergoes before it reaches the finished product stage. The raw material can be wood or recycled paper and cardboard, from which cellulose fibre is then extracted. Wood pulp is obtained by various mechanical and thermal processes and/or treatment with chemicals specific to the technological process. Pulp made from recycled materials is obtained using water and a device called a ‘hydrapulper’, where complex operations take place, supplemented by sorting and cleaning of the pulp obtained and/or dewaxing.
The steps that recycled pulp goes through to become a paper roll involve:
Types of Paper
Paper stationery and office paper- offset printing paper, copier, printer;
Hygienic paper - the term hygienic paper products is used to describe different types of paper (thin, soft, absorbent) used for wiping or drying. The main categories of sanitary products are toilet paper, kitchen towels, paper handkerchiefs and table napkins;
Carton ondulat - pentru fabricarea cartonului ondulat se folosesc trei semifabricate: hârtia strat ondulat (hârtia miez), hârtia strat neted (hârtia capac) și un adeziv (cleiul de amidon), în funcție de numărul de straturi de hârtie, deosebindu-se mai multe tipuri de carton ondulat.
Packaging paper;
Corrugated paper - this paper grade is a special category of paper intended mainly for the production of corrugated board;
Ambalaje din carton ondulat.
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