A quick look in your wallet will suffice to give you an idea of the versatility of specialty papers: The fuel receipt is printed on thermal paper, the banknotes consist of special banknote and security paper, and without the photographic-based paper your family photo would look only half as good. Cigarette papers, decor papers and labels are also categorized as specialty papers. Although specialty papers only account for five percent of worldwide paper consumption, they achieve much greater added value compared with mass-produced papers.

The challenges involved in the manufacture of specialty papers are diverse. Because they are generally only produced in small production lots of up to a ton, the requirements for the paper machines are stringent. Voith is heavily involved in the production of specialty papers and for decades has been developing new technologies and products to enable its more efficient and higher quality manufacture. We supply products and technologies for all grades of specialty papers. The high quality level and consistency of quality of coated and uncoated specialty papers is always a key consideration. This is why our production technologies for each specialty paper are tailored to every specific case.

Washing / Thickening / Dewatering

The purpose of washing is to remove undesirable particles smaller than 30 µm from the fiber suspension through a separation process according to the filtration principle. Thickening is important for increasing the stock consistency as required for further processing, minimizing storage volumes and for water loop separation. With the dewatering process, the stock consistency is increased from about 5 to 30% or more to prepare for the next process stage and for complete water loop separation.