| The traditional gift for a couple’s first wedding anniversary is paper. In keeping with the paper theme, it’s often the perfect time to add a dash of colour and sparkle to a new home with some quality wall coverings. Wallpaper can change the look of a room in just a few hours. But if you want it to last more than a few hours, you need to be sure you have chosen high-quality, high-density paper.
Manufacturing high-quality paper is no easy task. Optimum strength, absorption characteristics and appearance call for a very fine pH balance. And this is where the ADALKA® Process Stabiliser from Linde comes in.
ADALKA® adds a sodium bicarbonate solution made from carbon dioxide gas and dissolved sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to the paper process to regulate and stabilise pH levels, alkalinity and hardness. “Continuous addition of bicarbonate is a neat way of regulating the pH value,” says Marika Seilo, application engineer at AGA Pulp & Paper in Finland. “In some cases, we have seen the hardness reduced to one fifth of the original level.”
Beneath the surface
If you look closely, you’ll find ADALKA® in all sorts of unexpected places in your home. Open your refrigerator, for example, and you’ll see an array of paper-based cartons containing anything from milk and juice to yoghurts and sauces. They have probably been made with ADALKA®. Not only does it help to create high-quality cartons, it reduces the downtime and maintenance effort caused by machinery deposits resulting from pH fluctuations.
Korsnäs Frövi, formerly AssiDomän Cartonboard, Frövi, manufactures liquid and packaging board primarily for food. “We always try to be at the forefront of developments,” says Johan Miller of Korsnäs Frövi. “ADALKA® enables a more stable, cost-efficient production flow with the added bonus of looking after itself. Reduced maintenance effort translates into a direct competitive advantage for us.” |
knowhow 2/2006 complete issue (PDF 2,08 MB)
