Wet strength resins are the major chemicals used in the papermaking industry to change the physical characteristics of the paper, its dry state strength, and wet state degenerate tendency along with improving the paper quality. For some paper products, its high quality and wet strength have a direct relation. To achieve the appropriate characteristics of different paper products, different quantity of wet strength resin chemical is added to the wet end of the paper pulp.
Use of wet strength resin has allowed paper products to gain enough strength and ability to be used as a replacement product for different costly items such as lawn bags as a replacement for plastic, and beverage container as a replacement for coolers. BeniStrength (PAE) Chemicals and Polyamide Epicholohydrin wet strength resin are being used in the papermaking industry to maintain the high strength of the paper products (like tissue, towels, and paperboard) when the material is wetted.
Benefits of Wet Strength Resins for Paper Industry
Wet strength resin chemicals for paper provide a large number of commercial benefits:
- Improved wet strength
- Improved retention and drainage
- Enhanced creping control
- Improved dry strength
- Reduced chemical costs
- Improved machine running ability
Beni Rez (GPAM) chemicals are used to provide temporary wet strength in the production of sanitary products. One more effective use of wet strength resin is that it maintains the balance of charge on fines and fibers. In terms of energy consumption and dewatering, wet strength resins increase the global efficiency of the productive process.
Wet Strength Resin for Tissue Industry
Wet strength resins are the main ingredients for the raw materials used in the paper industry and highly impact the industrial cost. The correct dosages of it are used to produce high-quality tissue papers. Wet strength resins provide the best solution for the production costs and profitability challenges to the tissue makers by offering the following benefits to tissue manufacturers.
- Enhanced fiber strength and length
- Improved interfiber bond strengths
- Increased number of bonds per area unit
- High-quality sheet formation
- Improved stress distribution
How Chemical Additives Impart Wet strength Properties to Paper
The process can be easily understood by the two mechanisms respectively, Protection mechanism and reinforcement mechanism. Protection mechanism states that wet strength agents are distributed on cellulose fiber and a crosslink reaction forms a water-insoluble material deposited over and through the fiber. Reinforcement mechanism states that the wet strength property comes with the reaction of the wet strength resins with cellulose, during linkage formation among resin, fiber, and cellulose molecules.
Low Wet Strength
To achieve the correct characteristics of different paper products a large range of wet strength resin is required. It is not compulsory to have a single wet strength resin level good for all paper products. If it is good for one then it can be too low in another. Low wet strength arises due to the following key factors:
- A too low pH that is not enough for efficient retention and cure of the resin
- Less refined pulp, that is not able to absorb resin completely
- Excess of cationic starch
- Degradation of WSR by oxidizing agents
- Paper is not dry enough to achieve the desired characteristics
To obtain the correct characteristics of the different products, use the appropriate levels of the wet strength resin otherwise the ready sheet will be a lack of strength and have more breakages in it.
