“We want to refocus and redeploy in areas that we believe are of strategic relevance to us, and tissue is one of those areas”, says Manager Scott Rosencrance who is responsible globally for Kemira’s research on tissue and recycled fiber (RCF).
A key part of this platform will be tissue specialties – in the form of crepe control adhesive and release agents, softeners, bulking agents, debonders, and absorbency chemicals among other core competences.
“Strength will also be a major area of interest, and the areas to be covered here will include all aspects of wet strength, temporary wet strength, and functional promoters. Information management represents a third focal area, which will enhance our technology offering for our customers in the area of Tissue.”
“We’ll also be leveraging the results of researchers working on Kemira’s other international technology platforms, such as deposit control, antifoaming, biocides, and retention and drainage – and be applying these to the tissue world where we plan to aggressively position ourselves as a key supplier that our customers consider when they have a need in tissue,” continues Rosencrance.
“We’re now aiming to go beyond this by recruiting world-class experts with a strong track record in tissue-specific issues. This will allow us to focus on tissue in a methodical and assertive way.”
Individual Tools and the Toolbox
What areas of research does Rosencrance see as particularly critical in terms of tissue manufacture? “Our research will be split, very generally, into tissue specialties and strength. On the strength side we will continue our world-class development and enhancement of the GPAM platform as well as PAE-based permanent wet strength technologies. On the specialties side, the creping process will be a core area of interest, especially in terms of adhesives and release agents,” Rosencrance explains.
“We’re looking to outline a framework of relations between various process parameters and our chemistries that will enable us to get a better handle on managing wet-end processes – and in the best-case scenario, be able to predict how a process is likely to run on the basis of the variables involve,” he says.
Rosencrance stresses that intelligent IM tools, while important, are only part of Kemira’s overall tissue strategy. “Our customers want to be able to improve the properties of their products as cost-effectively as possible, and IM is one tool that we can offer to accomplish this vital customer goal. It’s one element in a larger ensemble of tools that are needed to meet customers’ needs. We need the entire toolbox to provide the best offering.”
Text: Jussi-Pekka Aukia
Read the full article in Kemira Solutions magazine 1/2009. The theme of the issue is tissue paper.