Volume 5, Number 2
May 1992

Mill Conversions

[Note: When a mill's conversion to the alkaline process has been announced in this column, it has referred only to market brands of freesheet printing and writing paper, not to board, groundwood or specialty grades, or to private brands. Groundwood papers are not normally made alkaline; the pH and filler type of specialty grades are often determined by the use to which they are put; and private brands are made to the customer's specifications. Despite the fact that some groundwood papers are now alkaline (see below), announcements in this column will continue to refer only to freesheet production, and exceptions will be noted as necessary.]

Repap Enterprises Corp., of Montreal, has two paper mills (the former Midtec mill in Kimberly, Wisconsin, and the Miramichi mill in Newcastle, N.B.),with a total of five machines, two of which make groundwood publication papers all the time, two of which make them some of the time, and one that makes freesheet. All five machines are now neutral. The papers are filled with calcium carbonate. The reasons for converting were to enhance quality and permanence, and to minimize environmental impact. This is the first public announcement of the neutral conversion of any groundwood machines.

Union Camp's Franklin, Virginia, mill completed its conversion to the alkaline process around the first of May. Four of the six machines there make fine papers. They account for 1600 of the mill's 2000 tons per day total production capacity. This is a big mill.

Noranda Forest Recycled Papers did not convert all its papers to alkaline, as reported in the December issue. Their envelope, register, copy and bond are still made acid, and there are no plans to change this. The original announcement was mistaken, like certain others before this, because of undiagnosed problems in cross-disciplinary communication; it was not because the editor was careless, or because the source was uninformed. Until the problem is solved, readers would do well not to quote or reprint information from this column before they check the corrections in the following two issues. Corrections will now be printed in this column rather than on the editor's page, to make them harder to overlook.