Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing, printing, drawing, packing and also widely used in many cleaning products, in a number of industrial and construction processes. To know more about paper and paper making, one has to get to know trees. Trees are all around you. Just look at a tree trunk. The bark protects the inner wood from weather, insects and other dangers. Heart wood is the innermost part of the trunk and even though it isn’t alive, it provides the tree with strength and structure. All that wood material is formed of fibers, tiny cellulose strands stuck together with a natural adhesive material called lignin fibers that we use to make paper.
Almost all of the paper you use today is made of wood fibers. Each tree species grows a certain way, and that affects the way its wood looks and performs. There are mainly two kinds of tree species: Hardwood and softwood. Some specialty papers, like stationery and money, are made from linen, cotton, or other plants.
Hardwood tree such as oaks and maples have woods with very short fibers. Paper made from these species is weaker. But its surface is smoother and therefore better to write and print on.
Softwood trees such as pine and spruce have wood with long fibers, and paper made from this type of wood is much stronger but its finishing is rough and its not good for writing, printing and many other uses.
Some paper is made brand-new from trees - either small trees harvested just for that purpose, or from sawmill scraps left over when larger trees are made into lumber. A second source of papermaking material is recycled fiber. Each year, more and more paper is recycled - its fibers used a second, third or fourth time.
Paper is a versatile material with many uses. Think of the hundreds of times a day we all touch paper, newspapers, cereal boxes, toilet paper, water bottle labels, parking tickets, streams of catalogs and junk mail, money, tissues, books, shopping bags, receipts, napkins, printer and copier paper at home and work, magazines, to-go food packaging. This list could fill a paperback.
The range of possible uses of paper seems almost limitless. New ways of using it are being devised daily. This evolution will continue because paper is an expression of everyday living.
Look around you now and see how many uses of paper you can identify in your immediate surroundings.
The word "paper" is etymologically derived from papyros, Ancient Greek for the Cyperus papyrus plant. Papermaking has been around for about 4,000 years. Papyrus is a thick, paper-like material produced from the pith of the Cyperus papyrus plant which was used in ancient Egypt and other Mediterranean cultures for writing long before the development of paper in China. Papyrus however is a "lamination of natural plants, while paper is manufactured from fibres whose properties have been changed by maceration or disintegration.
Paper was invented by the Chinese by 105 AD and spread slowly to the west via Samarkand and Baghdad. The first known operating paper mill was in operation in 794 in Baghdad. From here, the technology spread to Europe. The rapid expansion of European paper production was truly enhanced by the invention of the printing press and the beginning of the Printing Revolution in the 15th century.
Today, paper mills use great amounts of water, energy, and wood and follow a complex process in order to produce paper. These modern machines are as much as 500 feet in length and move at speeds of over 100 mph, which makes them capable of producing sheets of paper as much as 400 inches wide.
Although the process of making paper has been refined over the years, the process today is less and innovated. Paper making process consist of following main stages:
- Chemical pulping
- Mechanical pulping
- Deinked pulp
- Additives
- Producing paper
- Finishing
Silk Rout plays an important role in spreading of early technologies. As mentioned above Chinese were the first to make paper, from where the technology went to Samarkand and from there it eventually reached in India. In India, the first paper industry was established in Kashmir, established by Sultan Zainul Abedin of Kasmir in 1417-67 AD.
India has emerged as the fastest growing market when it comes to consumption, posting 10.6% growth in per capita consumption of paper in 2009-10. Presently the rapid increase in demand of writing materials the paper making centers were established in different parts of the country like Sialkot, Zafarabad in district Jaunpur, Bihar Sharif in district Azimabad (Patna) and Arwal in Gaya (Bihar), Murshidabad and Hooghly (Bengal) ; Ahmedabad, Khambat and Patan (Gujarat) ; and Aurangabad and Mysore in the south.
India produces many varieties of papers, namely, printing and writing paper, packaging paper, coated paper and some specialty paper. Varieties under printing and writing paper are cream wove paper, super printing paper, map litho paper (non-surface and surface size), copier paper, bond paper and coating base paper and others. The varieties under packaging paper are Kraft paper, boards, poster paper and others. The other varieties under coated paper are art paper/board, chromo paper/board and others. There are approximately 600 paper mills in India, of which twelve are major players.
Paper in India is made from 40 per cent of hardwood and bamboo fibre, 30 per cent from agro waste and 30 per cent from recycled fibre. Newsprint and publication paper account for 2 million tonnes, of which 1.2 million tonnes of newsprint paper is manufactured in India and the remaining 0.8 million tonne is imported. India imports about two million tonnes of pulp (soft wood and hardwood) and waste paper for newsprint. The paper industry in India looks extremely positive as the demand for upstream market of paper products, like, tissue paper, tea bags, filter paper, light weight online coated paper, medical grade coated paper, etc., is growing up.
Globally paper is shrinking. Paper demand in India is increasing nearly 8% annually and supply has not been able to keep pace. In India no Greenfield wood capacity has been added for more than two decades. No MNC or International paper maker has set up paper industry in India though other BRICKS nations-Brazil, Russia and China, have fetch a huge investment in this sector. India has all the necessary inputs for wood plantation like tropical climate, yearlong sunshine, good rainfall, huge degraded land and availability of human resource but it has not harnessed these elements as done by Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Indonesia.
The Indian paper industry has close linkages with economic growth as higher industrial output leads to increased demand for industrial paper for packaging, increased marketing will increases the newsprint and value added segments, and increase in education and office activities will boost the demand for writing and printing paper. End users of paper are both industrial and individuals. Thus paper industry has lot of sure growth. Indian paper industry is working towards the objective of attaining a production capacity of 13 million tones by the end of year 2020.
Like any other industry, the paper industry in India is also dominated by a number of top players and the names of some of the top operators in this industry are given below:
- ITC PSPD
- Ballarpur Industries Limited
- JK Paper Limited
- Tamil Nadu Newsprint & Papers Limited
- Century Pulp & Paper
- The Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills Limited
- West Coast Paper Mills Limited
Most of these top companies in the paper industry make their contribution to the society by using eco-friendly production techniques and they also help the society by offering a wide range of employment opportunities in their factories and offices in different parts of the country.
The paper industry offers many interesting career possibilities. The work may include creating paper, helping protect the environment, running tests, working in the forest or in a corporate office.
Today’s paper and pulp industry requires professionally trained individuals like:
Back tenders, Barker Operators, Paper Machine Operators, Chippers, Digester Operators, Envelope Machine Operators, Scientists, Environmental Engineers, Industrial Engineers, Foresters, Pulp and Paper Lab Testers, Advertising Workers, Managers, Accountants, Computer Programmers, Sales People..
The industry also needs Chemists and scientists in fields like air and water pollution. Professionals trained in law, marketing, business, economics are also necessary in the industry.
Trees, Pulp and Paper are directly or indirectly related to way of communication source. It is portable, smaller, and thinner, and has triggered the inventions of new cleaning products, printing, and even foods. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine a world without paper. It is then that you will truly understand its value and importance.
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