News

Paige Company Introduces Archival Boxes

The Paige Company (Parker Plaza, 400 Kelby St., Fort Lee, NJ 07024, 800/957-2443, fax 201/461-2677) is known for furnishing ingeniously designed, sturdy assemble-it-yourself boxes for storage of documents. Until now, Paige boxes have always been non-archival, that is, without a calcium carbonate buffer to keep the pH from falling over time. Now, however, they are making boxes that conform to the specifications of the National Archives: lignin-free, pH 8-10, 3% calcium carbonate filler, with a mold inhibitor and no residual sulphur.

These new boxes sell for about a dollar more than the old ones. There are three kinds: the "Archival Storage Box," for file materials, and "Archival Document Boxes" (the narrow kind usually found in archives), for both letter-size and legal documents. The old boxes are still sold. [From the May 1995 Abbey Newsletter, p. 35] (3.6)

Recyclable Pressure-Sensitive Adhesives Developed

Two companies have patented aqueous pressure-sensitive adhesives that are said to be repulpable. The first, developed by Nippon Carbide Kogyo, completely dissolves in alkaline solution and is easily removed in recycling operations. The second, developed by Dow Chemical, is water-insoluble when dried, but is nevertheless repulpable. It consists of a combination of alkali-dispersible and nonalkali-dispersable adhesives. [From Progress in Paper Recycling, May 1995, p. 75.] (3.73)

MTI will Build Two PCC Plants in Brazil

Whenever a paper mill contracts to have a precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) plant built, this means that it plans to make a lot of alkaline paper in the future, if it is not doing so already. So when Minerals Technologies (MTI) announces that it will build a new plant or two, this means that the supply of alkaline paper is due to get more plentiful.

In May, MTI announced that it would build two plants for a single Brazilian paper company, whose name cannot be revealed until later this year. The plants should be in operation by the fourth quarter of 1995. This will be good news for Brazilian conservators and preservation librarians and a lot of other people who need to use alkaline paper in their work, but who cannot find a domestic source.

The plants will be built, owned and operated by Specialty Minerals do Brasil, a wholly owned subsidiary of MTI. Minerals Technologies has been building PCC satellite plants for nine years, and now has 37 in operation around the world. (3A9.4)

Mills Identify New Paper Qualities on Packaging

• Hammermill has reformulated most of its papers so that they will run on small and large offset presses, copiers, laser printers, ink jet printers and plain paper fax machines. This makes them more versatile than the "dual purpose (DP)" papers or even the multipurpose papers that have come out more recently. They are called "Guaranteed Copier and Electronic Imaging Papers," and they have a little seal on the package that says "Electronic Imaging Guaranteed" with a lightning bolt in the middle of the seal.

  Hammermill also put out a press release May 15, announcing that all their papers are acid-free, made at an almost neutral pH (7 to 8). It describes the archival qualities of acid-free papers: "They resist yellowing and brittleness and have an extended life-span of 200 years or more instead of the 50-year life of an acid sheet." But it does not say that their ream wrappers identify the paper inside as acid-free, either by use of a symbol or in words.

• James River announced in April that it is revising labels of cut size office papers to respond to two frequently-asked questions:

  Is this paper alkaline/archival quality?
  Can this paper be recycled with standard office waste?

  The JR office papers' ream and carton labels now clearly identify these alkaline and groundwood-free papers as such. They are Word Pro®, Xerobond®, Eureka!™, Eureka™ 100, and Reclaim® 20/20. On the labels it says "Acid-free" and "Groundwood-free."

• At Ecusta, the roll labels bear the infinity sign in a circle if the paper meets the ANSI standard. (3A9.9)

International Paper's Riverdale Mill Starts up New Deinking, PCC & Papermaking Facilities

IP's Riverdale Mill in Selma, Alabama, has had a thorough makeover and expansion, at a cost of $325 million. Its new paper machine, Riverdale 16, is the largest uncoated freesheet machine in the world (wire width 392"), able to produce 1,090 tpd. It started up in May, using recycled fiber from a new 400-tpd proprietary deinking plant, and PCC from the world's largest onsite plant, installed by Specialty Minerals. Other improvements include a new power plant, an upgraded environmental treatment system, an expanded warehouse, and additional sheeting and packaging equipment.

All the Springhill and Hammermill grades are made at this plant. This includes six Springhill and 18 Hammermill grades that will be listed in the forthcoming 1995 North American Permanent Papers booklet, distributed by Abbey Publications. (3A9.9)

Thorold Quits Making Printing and Writing Papers

Thorold Specialty Papers (Thorold, Ontario), formerly Noranda Forest Recycled Papers, no longer makes alkaline printing and writing papers. It now makes wallpaper and flexible packaging. (3A9.9)

Breeding Trees with Easily Removable Lignin

A company called Zeneca Ltd. has developed a method for modifying the lignin in the growing tree, to make it easier to pulp their wood, using less energy and bleaching. It has contracted with Nippon Paper Industries Co. and Shell Research Ltd. to provide a gene that supresses the cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) enzyme in the plant. Nippon and Shell already are able to insert the gene into select lines of high performing trees. (3B1.7)

G-P's Port Hudson Mill has its New PCC Plant Expanded

Minerals Technologies has expanded production capacity of the PCC plant at Georgia-Pacific's mill in Port Hudson, Louisiana. The plant started up only a year and a half ago, when the mill converted from acid to alkaline, and the expansion was complete by June 30, 1995. It will give the mill about 30,000 additional tons of PCC a year.

PCC (precipitated calcium carbonate) is a specialty pigment for filling and coating high-quality paper. By substituting PCC for more expensive wood fiber and other filler pigments, mills can produce paper at lower cost. (3B3.44)

Patriot Paper Starts New Life as a Corrugated Medium Mill

Patriot Paper Corp. was producing recycled printing and writing paper until it had to file for bankruptcy in 1993. From September 4, 1990 to the time it shut down, it made alkaline paper. Its location in the "urban forest" of Boston was an advantage, but the mill was 200 years old and had problems with its state-of-the-art wastepaper sorting and deinking system. This past spring it was purchased out of bankruptcy by a Chicago-based investment group, and in April it was slated to start up again making corrugated medium, the fluted inner ply in corrugated board. Bay State Paper Co. will operate it. (3B3.7)

ISO Certifications for Printing and Writing Mills

• Rolland's mill in St.-Jerome, Quebec, was certified in January under ISO 9002, making it the first Canadian paper mill devoted exclusively to fine papers to do this. It makes 350 tons/day of sulphite and rag content bond, ledger, writing, book, offset, copy, register, envelope, and specialty papers. Its conversion to alkaline was completed by August 1993.
• Crane & Co., which has five mills in Dalton, Massachu setts, was certified in November 1994 under ISO 9002. The listing in Pulp & Paper for June 1995 does not say whether this was for its currency papers only, or for one or more mills.
• Provincial Papers has a mill in Thunder Bay, Ontario, where it makes neutral coated book and litho paper. Formerly owned by Abitibi-Price, it has been employee-owned since June 1, 1993. In March it was certified under ISO 9002.
• The announcement for Repap in Quality Systems Update for June seems to have gotten the names of the mill, the company and the town mixed up. What they seem to be referring to is Miramichi Pulp & Paper Inc., a subsidiary of Repap Enterprises Inc., in Newcastle, New Brunswick. If so, it was certified under ISO 9002 on April 27. It makes 1300 tons daily of lightweight coated printing papers, both groundwood and freesheet. When they were last contacted by this newsletter, they were in the process of converting to alkaline, and planned to start using calcium carbonate in 1992.
• Simpson's specialty mill in Ripon, California, was certified for ISO 9002.
• And there is a long list of companies with ISO certifications on p. 14 of the 1995 Lockwood-Post's Directory. The P/W mills that have gone for the most stringent standard, 9001, are the Champion mill in Canton and Cross Pointe's two mills in Park Falls, WI and West Carrollton, OH. (3B3.7)