SELECTIVELY MECHANICALLY PRE-DRIED PAPER AND SYSTEM FOR MANUFACTURE OF SAME

摘要

A bulky, soft and absorbent creped paper web is manufactured by supporting an uncompacted wet web of principally lignocellulosic fibers on an imprinting fabric having compaction elements, the imprinting fabric has a surface void volume of from about 15 cc/m2 to about 250 cc/m2, and a compaction element contact area constituting from about 5% to about 50%, of the total surface of the imprinting fabric, the web is selectively mechanically pre-dried by passing the web through a compression nip formed between the imprinting fabric and a dewatering felt so that significant compacting of the web occurs in the vicinity of the compaction elements, whereafter the selectively mechanically pre-dried web is dried; an apparatus for selectively mechanically predrying the web including the imprinting fabric and a papermaker's dewatering felt adjacent thereto to form a compression nip is also provided for use in the method.