The First 145 Years of the Paper Machine in the United States
by William J. Beckes - Engineering Department Beloit Corporation
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Shortly after the first papermaking machine was constructed by Bryan Donkin & Co. at his Bermondsey, England, establishment, the paper machinery building industry not only expanded locally but reached out to touch two continents. As early as 1821 Bertrams, Ltd. was founded in Sciennes, Edinburgh, Scotland, and shortly thereafter James Bertrams and Sons, also in Edinburgh, came into existence. Walmsleys and their subsidiary Bently and Jackson in Lancashire, and Millspaugh Ltd. of Sheffield, England, are still common names closely associated with the industry. From Bermondsey, paper machinery builders spread to continental Europe and westward across the Atlantic at a very early date to begin a new expansion. It was only natural that the first fourdrinier paper machine to be operated in this country should be imported from England, the only nation then experienced in producing such equipment. The first fourdrinier to arrive in America was purchased from Bryan Donkin & Co. and imported from England in 1827 by H. Barclay, of Saugerties, N.Y. This machine, 60 inches wide, was intended for installation in Mr. Barclay’s nearby mill. In December of the same year, Joseph Pickering purchased a similar machine, also from Donkin, which was set up in his mill in North Windham, Conn. in January of 1828, by George Spafford.
The fascinating adventure of setting up this new machine and putting it into operation had a decided effect on George Spafford’s future life and marked the beginning of the paper machinery industry in a new nation. As a machinist of great mechanical insight, he was impressed with the possibilities this new machine presented and firmly believed it would eventually supersede the inadequate papermaking processes then in use. As George Spafford drove slowly back to his home he pondered over many of the things he had just seen. "Few mills would import these new machines," he thought, "the distance from England is too great and business arrangements were too difficult to establish." His mind turned over all the advantages to be had from such a machine, but the uncertainties of the long voyage from England added unnecessarily to the cost and provided a barrier whereby only a few mills could hope to obtain them. "But if a similar machine-one even better could be built right here in America!"
Phelps and Spafford
Mr. Spafford secured the assistance of James Phelps, a man experienced as a paper mill builder. These two men established the firm of Phelps and Spafford, to build fourdrinier machines. The task of directing the working force was placed in the hands of Charles Smith, then a boy of nineteen, whose mechanical talents and ability had already marked him for leadership in this new venture. Mr. Smith was destined to later take over the firm. In spite of the many obstacles that had to be over-come,the first machine was built and put into successful operation in May of 1829 at the plant of Amos D.Hubbard in Norwich Falls, Conn. This plant, the first paper mill in Connecticut, dates back to Colonial days when it was founded by Christopher Leffingwell. None of the details of this first fourdrinier are known today, but it was supposedly a copy of the Donkin machine George Spafford had previously installed in the Pickering mill in North Windham (Conn.). The success of their first U.S. machine prompted a second one, equally as successful, which was completed two years later and sold to Henry Hudson of East Hartford, Conn. A third machine, built shortly thereafter for the mill of W.I.C. Baldwin, near Bl,oomfieId, N.J., established Phelps and Spalford as experienced designers and builders of papermaking machinery.
The company continued to build paper machinery until the financial crash of 1837 compelled them to suspend operations. Young Charles Smith and Harvey Winchester bought out the defunct firm and reorganized the business as the Smith, Winchester & Co. The facilities of the new company became much in demand and to keep pace with the requirements of an ever expanding industry a line of stuff pumps and beaters were added, in addition to the regular line of fourdriniers. In 1854, the firm secured the patent rights of Joseph Jordan and Thomas Eustice and introduced the Jordan and Eustice refining engine. In the early days of the California gold rush, Samuel P. Taylor struck it rich. He came from a family of paper manufacturers in the East and decided to build a mill in California. Mr. Taylor made the long journey to South Windham to discuss the details of his project with Smith, Winchester & Company. In due course a machine was built and shipped by boat to the Isthmus of Panama and then dragged overland on skids. On the Pacific side it was loaded into a schooner and taken to Bolinas, the nearest landing point to its ultimate destination. The last leg of the journey overland was perhaps the most difficult, for here the machinery was hauled by ox sled along narrow mountain ridges to the mill site in Taylorville. This was the first paper machine to go west of the Mississippi, and was put into operation in 1853.
Machine builders move west
By the early part of the nineteenth century the center of population in this country had shifted from the Atlantic Seaboard to a point well west of the Allegheny Mountains. George Goulding operated a machine shop since 1833 in Watertown, N.Y. where he contracted to construct and install all kinds of machinery for the many industries that were rapidly springing up in the immediate vicinity. By the year 1853 the business had reached such proportions that more capital and more executive ability ‘were needed to operate it. Two erstwhile lawyers, Messers. Bagley and Sewall, both showing a dislike for law and a desire to go into business, supplied both the necessary capital and business acumen. Accordingly, on September 12, 1853, these men entered into an agreement with George Goulding and formed the partnership of Goulding, Bagley and Sewall. The new firm prospered by buying up patent rights, principally in the auxiliary equipment line for paper mills, but it was not until the year 1889 that they designed and constructed their first paper machine and became actively engaged as paper machine builders.
Early mid-west builder
Both Smith, Wmchester & Co., and the firm of Goulding, Bagley and Sewall were well established when Orson E. Merrill, then a young man, arrived in Beloit, Wis. in the early part of 1858. His older brother, Sereno T. Merrill, was the owner and operator of the Rock River Paper Mill Co. there. The Rock River mill stood on the east bank of the Rock River and across it there was another paper mill, The Beloit Straw Board Co. (now known as the Beloit Box Board Co.). Orson E. Merrill, soon after his arrival in Beloit, established a machine shop. The 0. E. Merrill Co. was short lived, however, for in the same year it underwent reorganization. Orson Merrill joined forces with George Houston, a leading authority on water wheels and hydraulics, to form the Merrill and Houston Iron Works. The foundry and ,machine shop of the newly organized Merrill and Houston Iron Works were located on a site now part of the present Beloit Iron Works ,welding department. Sereno Merrill (the papermaker) saw the possibility of having his brother make repair parts, or even new equipment if necessary, for his paper machine and thus eliminate many of the difficulties of obtaining them from the east. In 1860 Sereno needed additional drying capacity for his Smith and Winchester machine and persuaded young Orson to make the necessary parts in his shop. Shortly paper makers all over the Midwest were calling on them for repair services. During the next twelve years the plant produced 34 cylinder machines, varying in size from 36 inch to 72 inch face of molds. It was not until 1874, however, that the company designed and built its first complete fourdrinier, and yet in, that year built four such machines. The first two machines were designed for 72 inch wires and were installed in the mills of the Winnebago Paper Co. and the A. W. Patton Co., in Wisconsin. The two remaining machines were shipped to Clafton and Campbell, in Ohio, sand were 60 inch and 66 inch wide machines respectively. An interesting comparison of the size and simplicity of these first fourdriniers, as compared with some of the more recent installations, can be gained from the number of freight cars required to ship them. In 1878 The Merrill and Houston Iron Works shipped the first of three paper machines to Appleton, Wis., for Kimberly Clark. This machine was a 64 inch wide fourdrinier and required nearly four freight cars to convey it. In 1949 a machine, the (Buccaneer), built for Macon Kraft Co., required 127 railroad cars to haul it to Macon, Ga.
Beloit Iron Works
On July 21, 1885, the Beloit Iron Works was organized by former employees of Merrill and Houston after that company ceased operations. By 1896, the Iron Works was building more and more fourdrinier machines, principally for midwestern paper mills. The cylinder machine, although not entirely forgotten, was reduced to a position of minor importance.
Paper machine speeds 1850-1900
Previous to 1867 the widest paper machine was not more than 100 inches and in speed did not surpass 100 f.p.m. The general trend toward machine speedups at this time to increase production is illustrated by the record set when A. D. Remington of Watertown, N.Y., operated his fourdrinier machine at 100 fpm. in the year 1867 or 1868. The importance of high speed to newsprint production was apparent even in the infancy of the industry. Sometime after 1850, William M. Singerly of Philadelphia decided to give his patrons an up to date daily newspaper and only charge them a penny for it. Although his intentions were good he immediately ran into trouble because the cost of his newsprint was too high. He accordingly built his own paper mill at Singerly, Maryland, and startled the world by running his machine over one hundred fpm. Later this was further increased until a speed of two hundred fpm. was reached. No single country had a monopoly on high speed machines and apparently all were thinking clearly along the same lines. While the idea of building wider machines and running them at faster speeds originated in America, the practice was soon followed in England by Chas. Wahnsley & Sons, in Lancashire. This firm has specialized in engineering wide, high speed newsprint machines; they have made many valuable improvements in high speed design and have made remarkable progress in this field. In 1880, a Pusey & Jones machine, operating in the mill of P. H. Glatfelter Co., was running up to 200 fpm. The fastest then on record and showed an increase of 100 fpm. in 23 years. In the early 90’s the Cracker Burbank Co. began a program of speeding up their machines and soon passed the three hundred foot mark in their Hanna mill. Some years later, Charles T. Crocker wrote his recollections of this early experience.
"During the nineties the Hanna mill attainted a speed on newspaper, making the Boston Evening Record at 300 feet. Prior to this time we had run the New York Herald up to 290 feet, having made this newspaper at this mill for about thirty years continuously. At this time it was really quite a stunt that George H. Cracker accomplished in building the speed of this 84 inch machine up to 300 feet. The paper did not stay on the machine readily, I can assure YOU. At this time I was going about the mills as considerable of a youngster, with George Cracker, and remember well a lot of the hard t.imes they had at this mill to make newsprint at this speed."
The general trend in the design of papermaking machinery by the end of the century was a constant struggle to make them run faster and produce more and cheaper paper. The 100 inch fourdrinier, with its "high" speed was the rule at this time.
Factors influencing increased speeds
Progress made in increasing machine speeds was very slow during the first fifty years of development, from the almost imperceptible motion of Robert’s hand operated model until speeds of about 50 fpm. had been reached by the mid-century. On the other hand, the latter part of the century shows very rapid strides being made so that machine speeds of 300 fpm. were not uncommon. Even before the turn of the century, engineering thinking, in terms of the modern fourdrinier as we know it today, was beginning to take shape. As early as 1898 Charles Warner, then chief engineer for Beloit Iron Works, made the first drawings of a removable type fourdrinier. Although nothing came of the idea at this time it was revived and put into effect some twenty years later. In 1918, Bert Larson designed a 160 inch fourdrinier to operate at 1200 fpm. for Consolidated Water Power and Paper Co., at Wisconsin Rapids. The fourdrinier was removable in five sections, was non-shaking and the only one of its kind built on this (principle).
Another paper machine builder
Peter Black and Linus Clawson built their first fourdrinier in 1881 for the Harding Paper Co., Franklin, 0. Peter, with his son <Frank, had started the business in 1873 in Hamilton, O., as a roll-grinding and paper machine repair shop. Mr. Clawson joined the growing enterprise in 1875. After the success of the first fourdrinier, the company was incorporated to raise the additional capital needed for a larger factory, forming the basis of what is today, Black Clawson Co. The new machine builder offered two successful machine features: the Kutter-Trowbridge wet end and seamless dryers. In the expanding paper industry of the time, the Black and Clawson machines were soon well known both in North America and abroad.
Paper machine drives
As early as Donkin’s first attempts to develop Robert’s model and bring it to perfection, the problem of power soon manifested itself, inasmuch as hand power was insufficient. The problem was solved, after a fashion, when a driving mechanism was added to run with the aid of water power. In his early designs, Bryan Donkin took a big step forward when he coupled the machine to a ,waterwheel through the driving arrangement of spur gears, bevel gears, and miscellaneous pulleys. An ingenious feature of this drive was the expander rigger for adjusting the speed of the machine. While this device allowed some variation in the speed of the machine to correspond with the flow of stock from the vat, it did not permit variations between the various sections of the machine. The straight face pulleys that belted together each section of these early machines were a constant source of grief. Every time a change of weight in the sheet was made, every time the stock varied, it meant going to the back side and by means of strips of canvas and lagging wax, lagging up one pulley, or shutting down and cut-ting some off another. In 1869 the Lindsay patented expanding pulley appeared, and while it was an improvement over the flat pulley, it had the unhappy facility of generally flying to pieces at the higher speeds. The most important drive innovation contributing to higher machine speeds was the invention of the cone drive by Messrs. Jo&ray (?), Cadet and Sons of Paris, France, about 1877, which introduced the cone pulley and bevel geared drive for operating paper machines. A more practical modification of the cone drive was introduced in this country by George E. Marshall of Turners Falls, Mass., who had obtained a United States patent for it. Thus we have the "Marshall Driving Train" which still exists, with refinements, on many machines still in use at the present time.
Harper’s fourdrinier -1890
Although the fourdrinier is now adaptable to the manufacture of most grades of paper, it was not always so. Before the advent of the suction couch roll, the inherent weakness of the plain couch to crush and weaken papers of a delicate nature, such as tissue, cigarette and crepe papers, was detrimental. In the conventional fourdrinier, because the paper was unsupported in passing from the couch to the press felt, the transfer at this point was extremely difficult on these delicate grades without undue breakage of the web. This objectionable feature of the straight fourdrinier in handling these special papers was overcome in 1862, when James Harper of East Haven, Conn., patented an arrangement whereby the sheet was supported by the felt in being transferred from the couch to the press section. This arrangement is commonly known as the Harper fourdrinier machine. The Harper machine is essentially a straight fourdrinier with the entire portion preceding the presses turned around end for end, which makes the wire travel away from the presses instead of toward them. The bottom press felt extended the length of the wire and wrapped the top couch roll, the paper being held between the felt and the wire at the nip. At this point the sheet was "picked-up" from the wire and carried high over the wire back to the press section. This backward arrangement of the fourdrinier in relation to the press eliminated the draw at the couch and supported the paper until it reached the presses, and in some instances until it entered the dryers. The excessively long felt, often reaching 100 feet in length, is an undesirable feature of the arrangement. This long felt made the Harper a very expensive machine to maintain and restricted its use to those kinds of papers that could not be made satisfactorily on other machines. The Harper machine has long since disappeared from the scene, mainly through the successful application of the suction roll. Many of these early Harper machines have been turned around, and by replacing the old plain couch and press rolls with suction rolls have been converted into conventional fourdrinier machines.
First part of the century
The solution of many problems in many fields contributed toward the development of the high speed paper machine. At the close of the nineteenth century, George W. Knowlton of Watertown, N.Y., commenting on the changes in papermaking from 1867 to 1897 raised the question:
"What changes will the next thirty years bring about? It does seem as though we had about reached the limit. But the experiences of the past continually teach us that the future years will probably bring about as great changes as those that have gone by."
The beginning of the new century saw paper machines being speeded up very rapidly. First the 400 foot mark was reached and shortly thereafter 500 feet was attained. By 1911, wire speeds of 700 fpm. on machines running newsprint were commonplace. Those who built new .mills, or installed new equipment, built for speed, which meant at least 500 fpm. These plans called for new designs and a new machine to be produced; machines then in use had to be rebuilt to compete with the latest developments. At the same time, printing presses began to run faster and became more exacting in their requirements. All these developments brought the paper mill ‘back to the machine builder to help solve the problem of better stock regulation and distribution to produce a more uniform and stronger sheet, and a better ‘wound roll so the printer could run without breaks and make a clear print.
Third period, 1900 onward
In 1919, Mr. Mead of the Consolidated Water Power and Paper Co., placed an order for a new ,machine with the ,Beloit Iron Works. The proposed machine ,was to have a wire 160 inches wide by 100 feet long and designed to run newsprint at 1200 fpm. A unique feature in the design of this new machine was the novel method of making a wire change. This was a new invention and had never been applied before. The idea was simple and in application consisted in moving the fourdrinier out of the way so the wire could be opened up and placed in position with a minimum of equipment handling. The entire fourdrinier, with the exception of the couch roll, could be moved out into the aisle by simply starting a small, one horsepower motor. Machine builders (were all working toward one goal-increased speed, especially for newsprint machines. Shortly after the successful installation of Consolidated’s removable fourdrinier by the Beloit Iron Works, which proved to ‘be one of the first machines to reach the 1000 fpm. mark, Rice, Barton & Fales, on April 15, 1921, also put into operation a newsprint machine in the same speed range. This machine, installed in the Millinocket mill of the Great Northern Paper Co., was a 158 inch fourdrinier equipped with a regular couch and with four plain presses. It was very similar to the Consolidated $4 machine arrangement. Power was furnished to run the machine through a rope drive from a Corliss steam engine and a Ferguson quarter turn belt arrangement to the various sections. The first commercial newsprint made in Canada at these high speeds occurred about this same time. In August of 1921, a machine making newsprint was operated at 1000 fpm. in the mill of Laurentide Co. at Grand Mere, Quebec. The machine, built by the Dominion Engineering Works, was a 166 inch fourdrinier equipped with a suction couch, suction first press, and two plain presses. The Harland sectional electric drive was one of the first attempts to operate a paper ma-chine with automatic speed control and regulation. One of the first problems on these early high speed machines that had to be overcome was the power required to drive them. In some instances the power requirements were exceeding 600 hp. In 1922, the Pusey and Jones Corp. attempted to solve this problem in a machine they were building for Chester Paper Co. to be used in the manufacture of tissue. Every part of the machine was fully equipped with ball bearings and was the first of its kind manufactured in America.
Speed versus width
For a long time it was generally thought that a speed increase was only possible on the narrow machines, and that both speed and a wire width increase could not be combined. Even as late as the decade of the 20’s, speed versus width was the popular discussion in all the leading trade magazines. It was generally con-ceded that you might get speed on a narrow machine, but if you wanted large production you had to go to a big machine and then, of course, you could not expect speed. That this theory was pure conjecture was evidenced in 1925 when engineers began designing with the thought in mind of improving quality and reducing costs through combining both width and speed. At this time the Beloit Iron Works produced its first machine in the 200 inch wire range, and although only designed to operate at 400 fpm. on book paper, advanced wire widths into the 200 inch class. Of far more importance from an engineering standpoint were the Fort Frances and Thunder Bay machines which, in 1927, combined both speed and width successfully for the first time. The Fort Frances machine, a 226 inch fourdrinier designed to run newsprint in the Canadian mill, increased wire speeds up to 1500 fpm. for these wide machines. Wire widths were further increased on the Thunder Bay machine, a 245 inch fourdrinier designed to produce newsprint at 1200 fpm. Both of these installations were of the removable fourdrinier type, using the patented wire carriage, and were equipped with suction couch and press rolls. Anti-friction bearings, finding a wider application in paper machinery at this time, were used throughout to reduce power consumption and in-crease wire life. At the same time, other paper machine builders were clearly thinking in terms of the wide machine running at high speed as the best means of increasing production. In May of 1929, the Bagley and Sewall Co. started up a 304 inch fourdrinier machine for the Great Lakes Paper Co., Ltd., at Fort William, Ontario, Canada. This machine, with a 304 inch wide by 90 foot long wire, the largest of its kind at the time, was driven by a sectional electric drive furnished by the Canadian General Electric Co. The installation of this wide machine proved successful, and even at the start-up produced a quality newsprint sheet at a speed of 1,070 fpm. Sometime later, a similar and much wider machine, in this case a 342 inch wire, was installed in the same mill by the Black Clawson Co. Thus the Twenties saw rapid strides made in both speed and width, with much of the pioneering work being done on newsprint machines. Efficient operation of these "high" speed machines was only made possible by the development of the suction couch and suction press which have been referred to earlier. Success in the development of the high speed paper machine depended mainly on reliability and safety in operation. In this latter respect, the invention of the rope carrier by William Sheahan in 1913, made possible the rapid transfer and carriage of the sheet through the dry end of the machine. The very early use of air to transfer the sheet from the couch roll to the press felt, and thus eliminate hand methods, was an important contribution. More recently, the pressure type headbox and the automatic transfer from the fourdrinier wire to the first press have made the, still higher machine speeds possible. The first machine to apply the principle of suction pick-up and suction transfer was built by the Beloit Iron Works to produce light weight kraft paper at speeds up to 2000 feet per minute at Crossett Paper Mills in 1949. Although the development of newsprint and kraft machines received an unusual amount of attention in the period following the Second World War, light-weight papers did not go unnoticed in the quest for wider machines at higher speeds to boost production. In 1950, a 177 inch tissue machine, was designed and built by Beloit for production speeds up to 3,000 feet per minute at Scott Paper Co. in Chester, Pa. This was the ,first paper machine built for a speed of 3,000 fpm. Today tissue machines lead sin speed with a number running in the 5000 fpm. range. An interesting trend in tissue machines is for several of the larger companies in this field to develop their own unique forming elements.
After World War II
The depressed thirties and concentration on the war offered little opportunity for developments and improvements in paper machines. Pent up demand following the war caused a great resurgence of interest in wider, faster and better paper machines. In order to control the size (height) of the headbox required for high speeds the pressure headbox was developed as will be outlined later. The problem of transferring the sheet across the open draw between the couch and first press have been referred to above and development of the vacuum pick-up to solve this is also described in the following. These were the two major developments coupled with general engineering improvements in the period immediately after World War II. Methods to help the transfer of the sheet from the wire to the first press could include such things as using higher vacuums in ‘the flat boxes and suction couch to remove more water resulting in a dryer stronger sheet, but the amount of improvement is limited by factors such as increased wire wear ‘and the cost of increased vacuum. Another method could be ‘the wet pick-up felt arrangement but limitations here include the fact that both sheet and felt must be quite wet at the pick-up position, abnormally high water loads are then carried to the first press and certain sheet disturbances occur. These result in poor quality sheet as compared with an open machine. In 1937 an English mill installed a suction pick-up roll to enable production of tissue at a relatively low speed of from 600 to 700 fpm. However, it was not until Beloit engineers developed their patented suction pick-up and transfer arrangement that a practical suction pick-up was proved for high speed production of paper. In 1950 the suction pick-up ,became a reality and permitted 30 lb. kraft paper to be transferred from fourdrinier to press section at speeds up to 1,930 fpm. Since then, the vacuum pick-up has become a widely accepted method for transferring the sheet from the fourdrinier to the press and across other press draws. In operation, the pick-up felt contacts the wire at a point between the suction couch and plain wire return roll. The suction area on the pick-up roll causes the sheet to leave the wire without appreciable strain and to adhere to the bottom of the pick-up felt. The sheet then travels only a short distance, fully supported, to the first or transfer press. A conventional bottom felt is used and the felted sheet passes through the press. The sheet leaves the press nip supported by the felt. The pick-up felt then turns to start its return run. The pick-up roll has provision for concentrating the vacuum temporarily on the tail sheet when it is to be threaded through the press section. The pick-up roll is also provided with front and back deckle adjustments to permit retention of the edge trim on the fourdrinlier wire itself. With the vacuum pick-up or suction pick-up, the draw between the fourdrinier and press section is no longer a limiting factor as ,far as machine speed is concerned. As machine speeds moved above 1,000 fpm. it be-came obvious that the open headbox could not indefinitely supply an adequate flow of stock to the wire. In addition, the volume of stock present in the open box, as pond height was increased to gain a sufficient head to maintain machine speed, caused uneven flow patterns and poor stock distribution onto the wire. To overcome this problem the air cushioned inlet was introduced in 1949. In this design concept a cushion of air under pressure in an enclosed vessel replaced the high open boxes. This ‘meant that there was a lesser volume of stock present in the headbox. This stock could now be controlled in the approach flow to the slice. The loading was controlled to permit the proper volume of stock to be discharged onto the wire. Thus, the air cushioned inlet was another major breakthrough which permitted paper to be made taster and at higher quality. Today, air cushioned inlets are operating over the full range of machine grades and speeds. They are continually undergoing modification in the approach flow to the slice and in inlet design. These advancements contribute to continually improve sheet quality.
Foils replace table roils
The drainage element used most widely in the forming zone has been the table roll. Drainage is accomplished with a table roll by means of a differential pressure established across the wire by the pumping action in the diverging space on the off-going side of the nip and atmospheric pressure which exists above the wire. For a given roll, this difference in pressure is determined by machine speed. Experiments over the last 20 years with a stopped table roll and with stationary elements inclined to the wire has led to the development of fourdrinier foils. Foils operate on essentially the same principle as table rolls. Drainage is accomplished by means of a differential pressure created by the pumping action of a diverging space created on the off-going side of the foil-wire nip. The two major considerations of foil operation are that ‘the magnitude of the vacuum created tends to be smaller than that obtained with plain table rolls at the same speed, and that the vacuum can be controlled by changing the angle of inclination of the foil to the wire, thus control is available over drainage rate and stock activity. Press designs must continue to become more sophisticated and effective so as to provide maximum de-watering at minimum costs. One of the major reasons ‘for foils not receiving wider acceptance has been the lack of a suitable blade material. In the past few years, the new plastics and availability of exotic plating materials has led to commercial feasibility of fourdrinier foils and they have found wide application on new as well as existing machines. The Beloit Venta-Nip press was introduced in the early 1960’s as an additional pressing tool to extract more water from the sheet. It allowed higher machine speeds because it permitted more water to flow from the sheet into the felt than was possible with suction rolls or plain press arrangements. Main advantages of use of foils are less fourdrinier power consumption, better drainage and control of drainage.
Press section in the sixties
Basic press configurations were well established in the early 1960’s. Builders worked toward modifications of these arrangements to make the press a more versa-tile tool of production. Two important contributions to press section improvement in the sixties were the grooved roll and methods of controlling press roll crowns. Applications of these two items, singularly or in combination, improved overall press water removal capacity as well as improving sheet quality, reducing machine downtime and cutting overall operating costs. Close spaced circumferential grooves in the roll provided vents in the nip, open to atmosphere on both the entering and leaving side. This arrangement provided for high water removal capacity since water in the grooves was free to move backward or forward with minimum resistance. This eliminated pressure build-ups between the felt and vented roll. Doctors, deflectors and high capacity savealls carried away the increased volume of water and eliminated re-wetting of the felt and sheet. In many cases it was able to eliminate suction rolls and their associated equipment. The grooved press has served to lower operating and installation costs. Today, the grooved press arrangement has been applied in thousands of applications on a wide range of tissue paper and board.
Pocket ventilating systems
As machine speeds increased steps were taken to close up press draws. Press arrangements began to find areas of "dead air" introduced in the "pockets" which gave the web full support from pick-up of the dryer section. These "pockets" presented areas through one, two and even three press nips. This problem was met with the introduction of systems of rolls and ducts designed to vent these troublesome pockets of dead air to an absolute minimum. The Beloit P-V Roll is one of a number of pocket venting systems now employed by papermakers. These rolls (and associated P-V ducts) provide an abundant uniform supply of hot dry air across the dryer pocket for effective removal of water vapor and dead air pockets. This reduction of vapor pressure in the pockets allows proper moisture evaporation from the sheet resulting in greater overall drying rates and improved moisture profile. An additional benefit from pocket ventilation is that the air which is used to condition the sheet also passes through the felt serving to also dry and condition it as well.
Machine clothing
Through the many decades of paper machine improvement and development in this country, the manufacturers of machine clothing have kept pace in providing the improved clothing required. The most dramatic developments in machine clothing have occurred in the last twenty years. Space does not permit more than the briefest mention of these, such as: needled felts; all synthetic felts; revolutionary new principles of felt design; development of plastic screens as a substitute for fourdrinier wires; and finally the plastic screen substitute for the heavy relatively non-porous woven textile dryer felt. This latter is a case where a relatively simple idea has taken hold and had rapid and very wide (acceptance?). There have been two sheet forming devices beginning in the Sixties or a little earlier. There occurred a resurgence of interest in the cylinder machine and a number of equipment manufacturers here and abroad developed new or greatly improved forming devices based on the fundamental principle of the cylinder machine. It is of interest to note that these developments predated (but have been greatly encouraged) by the current interest in multi-ply board as a means to greater waste paper utilization. The other area of forming development has been much more dramatic since it has resulted in forming elements of a radically new kind. These are the twin wire farmers which developed from the Inverform where a number of short top wires were run on a fourdrinier. The new cylinder and twin wire formers developed from the speed limitations becoming evident for the basic cylinder and fourdrinier designs. The development of all these new formers have been so thoroughly documented in the pages of Paper Trade Journal that there is no justification for further discussion here.
Comments about the author and this article:
The Paper Industry Web often receives information from visitors for posting on our website. For that we are extremely grateful. Unfortunately at the time this article was received it's source or timing was not documented. We are satisfied the article is authentic and that William Beckes is indeed the author. A search will reveal that Mr Beckes was employed by Beloit Corporation prior to 1955. It will also reveal the article was previously published in The Paper Trade Journal May 27, 1972
Reference links:
Pioneers Paper Machine (see Page 117, first paragraph).
Beloit Partners (see the bibliography listing under the title "Articles." on page 264).
The copy we received was in very poor condition with many typos, improperly hyphenated words, unassociated and random characters and mismatched fonts. It appeared our copy may have been processed from a multi-column document using an OCR program.
After studying the article we determined it to be a major contribution to the history of papermaking and congratulate Mr. Beckes the author for it's organization and completeness. It not only reveals new information, it fills in blanks in some existing paper history articles. Considering that Mr. Beckes composed the article well before the advent of the Internet it must have been quite a challenge to search out the information, making his contribution the more phenomenal
The article is reproduced as received by us with the necessary fixes to the imperfections as outlined with special care given to avoid changing the author's content and intent. It has been reformatted using Microsoft Front Page to suit the requirements for publication on the Internet.
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