Effective dust control has become a critical success factor for today’s tissue manufacturers. As the industry pushes to deliver superior softness that consumers demand, issues related to dusting in the tissue production process have increased. Dusting creates multiple challenges: it compromises product quality and reduces both paper machine efficiency and converting performance. Moreover, airborne dust poses significant workplace health concerns for mill personnel and increases fire risks at the mill due to dust buildup in the machine and on surfaces.

“Effective dust control plays a key role in ensuring production efficiency and maintaining high product quality. It helps manufacturers strike the right balance between softness and operational performance,” says Lucyna Pawlowska, Principal Specialist, Application Excellence at Kemira.

Transforming tissue dust measurement

Lucyna has been instrumental in developing a game-changing method for efficient dust control that helps mills mitigate dust and optimize their processes. Kemira KemView™, a proprietary Sheet Structure and Dust Analyzer, has transformed traditional dust and lint measurement techniques by going beyond what can be observed with the naked eye.

Typically, manufacturers rely on visual observations and collecting dust from machine and equipment surfaces only after substantial production runtime. KemView enables analysis directly on the tissue sheet surface. The measurement tool quantifies and classifies dust and lint particles – fibers, fines, starch, and ash – by size and provides precise and actionable data for process improvements.

“Our method provides a fast and reliable analysis of the dust content, allowing for better dust control. This insight is key to troubleshooting sheet quality and production issues, optimizing refining or making chemical adjustments,” explains Lucyna.

Understanding the root causes of tissue dusting

The industry’s pursuit of enhanced softness has led many tissue producers to substantially increase the use of short hardwood fibers, particularly eucalyptus, in their production. While these shorter fibers help create the softness consumers prefer, they are also inherently more prone to generating dust during production.

“Most tissue dust is created during the creping process, and manufacturing choices made to enhance softness often contribute to dust generation,” says Lucyna. 

Most tissue dust is created during the creping process, and manufacturing choices made to enhance softness often contribute to dust generation.

Most tissue dust is created during the creping process, and manufacturing choices made to enhance softness often contribute to dust generation. For example, for ultra-soft tissue grades, producers often reduce sheet moisture to extremely low levels during creping, which dramatically increases dusting. Similarly, manufacturers who utilize multilayer headboxes and apply eucalyptus at the outer Yankee layer expose these short fibers directly to the forces of the creping blade, which intensifies the problem.

“The increasing use of recycled fiber also increases dusting due to the weaker fiber quality,” Lucyna notes. “Additionally, mechanical refining, often used to develop tissue strength, leads to excessive fines formation that further increases dusting issues.”

The most effective solution to tissue dust control

Success lies in the sweet spot: producing tissue that is both soft and strong while minimizing dusting throughout production and converting. “With our chemistry expertise and the unique insights provided by KemView, we can help tissue producers achieve this balance. It’s about understanding each mill’s unique challenges and developing a targeted approach that suits their process,” states Lucyna.

The most effective approach to reduce dust formation and enhance tissue sheet quality combines the use of dry strength resins with reduced fiber refining. Reduced fiber refining decreases fines generation, which directly impacts dust levels, while dry strength resins compensate for the strength loss. Both Kemira FennoRez^TM GPAM-based strength resins (glyoxalated polyacrylamides) and cationic, anionic, and amphoteric FennoBond^TM polyacrylamides deliver proven results in dust reduction, each targeting specific tissue grades, different furnish types, and end-product properties.

“This dust mitigation approach enables tissue manufacturers to maintain or even increase softness while meeting their dry strength targets,” explains Lucyna. “Dry strength resins also bring additional benefits through improved operational efficiency and runnability, e.g., improved fiber retention and drainage and reduced stickies and pitch formation and deposition.”

A manufacturer of at-home bath tissue struggled with excessive dust generation due to high fines content in hardwood pulp and using hardwood fiber in the Yankee layer of the 2-layer headbox. Kemira helped achieve an 82% reduction in tissue dust by strategically reducing refining and applying FennoBond^TM dry strength additive. The solution delivered a 5% enhancement in softness as measured by a human panel handfeel test, while maintaining dry tensile strength at the target level.

For a brown napkin producer, dusting caused problems during converting. Initially, reduction in refining delivered a 60% dust reduction, and by applying FennoRez^TM GPAM resin in low fiber refining conditions, dust levels decreased by 76%. This solution significantly improved sheet dry tensile strength, which enabled reduction in basis weight and crepe ratio. At the same time, drainage and fiber retention improved, leading to increases in machine speed and production rate.

A premium bath tissue manufacturer faced excessive dusting due to creping at a very low moisture combined with high levels of virgin hardwood fiber in the Yankee layer. A trial with FennoBond^TM dry strength resin reduced dust in the parent rolls by 55%, while allowing the mill to increase hardwood fiber content by 7% and to improve handfeel softness.

“These successes demonstrate the power of analyzing dust composition and applying tailored chemistry solutions. The dust challenge can be turned into an advantage, creating opportunities to improve production efficiency and product quality, while also improving the safety of the working conditions,” concludes Lucyna.