Flame Treatment for Paper and Cardboard

Today, flame treatment is the most used process for paper and cardboard, able to replace all other treatments. In the United States, it is the most frequently used system to improve adhesion with other polymeric materials. EsseCI has introduced important advancements in the significant development of this technology, compared to those of the competition.

The most important improvements are:

• The use of a combustion analyser to regulate and thus constantly monitor the temperature and composition of the flame;
• The use of a chromed and thermostatically-controlled treatment roll.

• Adjustable temperature and flame composition ranging from 110 to 1900° C, offering different possibilities of free O2 in the different chemical compositions of paper and cardboard.

• The possibility of heating or cooling paper or cardboard passing over the surface of the roller, so as to determine the right process conditions for the selected material;
• Certainty that the paper/cardboard always passes at the same distance from the flame (and thus that there are no variations in the gap);
• A reduction of the distance at intervals of 4-6 mm (depending on the line speed) that saves at least twice as much energy compared with other systems in which the gap is much larger.

This solution is not a new idea nor experimental but comes from EsseCI experience in thin plastic films , where this type of plant is widely used in polypropylene and polyethylene treatments.

Its extension to paper and cardboard was quite natural and constitutes a real step forward in the technology and extrusion of coating processes. In fact, the benefits deriving from the analyser (different flame compositions or the possibility of temperature adjustment) and from the treatment roller (heating or cooling paper/cardboard) result in extreme flexibility in the EsseCI system, which offers treatments without any problem on any type of material—especially very thin paper— with improved quality, economic savings (with a significant reduction in gas consumption) and increased production (extrusion speed increased by about 20%).