How to Make Paper | Step by Step

Paper is a dry sheet of plant fibers. Most pulp is made from trees, especially fast-growing and green conifers. Paper can also be made from bamboo, cotton, hemp, burlap, and various other plant materials.

Fine papers used for magazines or packaging often have additional materials such as Chinese clay so that they are more colorful and have a shiny surface.

Paper is very easy to make by hand. But because of its so many needs that most of the paper is now made by giant machines. Whatever method is used, there are basically two stages: prepare the pulp and then form it and dry it into finished sheets or rolls.

Here is the process of making paper using machines and hands from raw to finished goods:

paper photo. image by Darkmoon_Art on pixabay.com

Paper Making by Hand

The raw plant material is placed in a large vessel filled with water and literally beaten to a pulp to create a thick fiber suspension called semi-finished goods.

This semi-finished item is then formed into sheets of paper using a very basic frame made of two parts: a metal mesh called a mold that sits inside a wooden frame known as a wooden deck (a bit like a photo frame).

The mold and bobbin are dipped in half and stirred gently so that a flat layer forms on top of it, with most of the water (and some pulp) flowing out. 

Paper Making with Machine

Although some expensive paper is still made by hand, most are made quickly, efficiently, and automatically by giant machines.

The paper making process begins with cutting down trees in the selected forest area called coupes. Next the top and the branches of the tree were cut and then the wood was brought to the factory.

In the factory, the bark is removed and the wood is brought to the chipper which cuts it into small pieces called wood chips. The pieces of wood are then filtered to remove impurities. After this process, it's time to make pulp or pulp.

Pulp is prepared for paper making machines both mechanically and chemically. A mechanical method (commonly used to make lower quality paper) is called groundwood process, since pulp was originally made using large stones to grind wood. 

Today, pulp is prepared by giant machines that cut, wash, hit, and mix wood, fabric, or other raw materials into a wet mass of fiber. 

In chemical methods, known as the Kraft process (from the German word for "strength," because it produces strong paper), plant material is boiled in strong alkalis such as sodium sulfide or sodium hydroxide to produce fiber. 

At this point, the addition of materials (surface coatings such as clay), dyes (to make colored paper), and size (to strengthen and waterproof and prevent ink from spreading) can be added to the mixture to change the properties of finished paper (sometimes they are added later).

These sheets are then placed on a rag or cloth and stacked with others to press. Once pressed, the sheet is hung to dry.

Once the porridge is prepared, they are converted into paper by a large roller machine. The best known type of papermaking machine is called the Fourdrinier machine (named for the two English brothers who invented it in the early 19th century), although there are alternatives (including a cylinder engine developed a few years later by John Dickinson). 

Wet slurry enters the machine from a trough called a headbox at one end and is scattered on a conveyor belt that moves with wire. The belt is shaken, sucked, and blown to remove water from the fiber layer, before the watermark, texture, or other end result is pressed into it by a patterned roller called a dandy roller.

The paper is then pressed further and completely dry, repeatedly around a series of rollers, before getting the latter, very fine emphasis by a large, heavy steel roller, called a calendar.

Finished paper appears as a net (very large sheet) or scroll (to print things like newspapers and magazines). The largest Fourdrinier engine produces paper at speeds of more than 60 km/h (40 mph).

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