Wikijunior:How Things Are Made/Wood/Toilet Paper

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Products[edit | edit source]

Toilet papers are sanitary papers that need to be clean and hygienic. Toilet paper can be one- or two-ply, meaning that it's either a single sheet or two sheets placed back-to-back to make it builder and more absorbent. Color, scents, and embossing may also be added,

What do we need to make this thing?[edit | edit source]

Toilet paper is generally made from "virgin" paper, using a combination of softwood and hardwood trees.

Softwood trees such as Southern pines and Douglas firs have long fibers that wrap around each other; this gives paper strength.

Hardwood trees like gum, maple and oak have shorter fibers that make a softer paper. Toilet paper is generally a combination of approximately 70% hardwood and 30% softwood.

Other materials used in manufacture include water, chemicals for breaking down the trees into usable fiber, and bleaches. Companies that make paper from recycled products use oxygen, ozone, sodium hydroxide or peroxide to whiten the paper.

What is the step by step process?[edit | edit source]

Step by step (Preferable in bullet point list)

  • Step 1: Tree logs that arrived at the mill and are debarked, a process that removes the tree's outer layer while leaving as much wood on the

tree as possible. The debarked logs are chipped into a uniform size approximately 1/4 inches . These small pieces make it easier to pulp the wood.

  • Step 2: The batch of wood chips is then mixed with cooking chemicals; the resultant slurry is sent to a 18.3-m tall pressure cooker called a digester. During the cooking, which can last up to three hours, much of the moisture in the wood is evaporated resulting pulps.
  • Step 3: The pulp goes through a multistage washer system that removes most of the lignins and the cooking chemicals. The fluid which are called as black liquor, is separated from the pulp, which goes on to the next stage of production
  • Step 4: The washed pulp is sent to the bleach plant where a multistage chemical process removes color from the fiber. Residual lignin, the adhesive that binds fibers together, will yellow paper over time and must be bleached to make paper white
  • Step 5: The pulp is mixed with water again to produce paper stock, a mixture that is 99.5% water and 0.5% fiber. The paper stock is sprayed between moving mesh screens, which allow much of the water to drain.
  • Step 6: Next, the paper is creped, a process that makes it very soft and gives it a slightly wrinkled look. During creping, the paper is scraped off the Yankee Dryer with a metal blade. This makes the sheets somewhat flexible but lowers their strength and thickness so that they virtually disintegrate when wet. The paper is then wound on jumbo reels that can weigh as much as five tons.
  • Step 7:The paper is then loaded onto converting machines that unwind, slit,and rewind it onto long thin cardboard tubing, making a paper log. The paper logs are then cut into rolls and wrapped packages