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Voith collaborates on new measuring method for detecting stickies

Voith is introducing a new measuring method to detect the unwanted tacky contaminants known as stickies.

The measuring method, developed in collaboration with the research and service institute Papiertechnische Stiftung (PTS) Heidenau in Germany, uses a near-infrared (NIR) camera to allow reliable detection of contaminants along the papermaking process.

The associated technical rule was recently published as DIN SPEC 6745.

The DIN SPEC is a preliminary stage of the DIN standard and describes the measuring procedure based on NIR measuring technology. The DIN SPEC 6745 is available to download free of charge from the Beuth Verlag website.

With NIR, the spectral measurements obtained are compared and assigned to values of known contaminants. This allows further classification of the contaminants based on their chemical composition.

Both adhesive and non-tacky contaminants can be identified and classified using the NIR measuring technology.

Since the new measuring method uses laboratory sheets that can be produced by a laboratory sheet former and contain fibres, stickies and non-tacky contaminants, numerous intermediate steps in sample preparation are eliminated.

For example, the sticky contaminants in a stock sample no longer need to be concentrated in order to be analyzed.

The new NIR measuring method can be used to evaluate final paper samples in addition to stock samples.

The new measuring technology is currently available at the Voith Paper Technology Center in Heidenheim for the technology group’s R&D activities and for customer trials.