Experimental investigation of different refining stages influences on optical and ultrasonic signals in paper pulp suspensions

An important parameter to control in papermaking is the fiber mass fraction in the pulp suspension. Poor control to an unstable process that compromises the production, quality and the energy efficiency in the pulp mill. Using optical or ultrasound measurement techniques can obtain estimation of the mass fraction. Refining is an important operation in preparing the fibers for the paper machine. Refining influence the properties of the fiber by crushing the fiber, roughens the fiber surface and occasionally cut fibers and removes parts of the outer fiber wall leading to an increasing amount of short fibers (fines). A freeness tester was used for verify the changes in fiber properties at four different refining levels. The result shows that for unbleached softwood pulp the used measurement techniques either were not observable or minor. The results indicate that refining can potentially influence accurate consistency estimation for unbleached softwood pulp but for bleached hardwood pulp the influence is believed to be minor using the investigating measurement techniques