More Softness Means More Dust – A Growing Challenge

Note: This is an excerpt of an article that first appeared on the Tissue360° Newsletter, which covers tissue business technology developments, reliability, safety, and related TAPPI Standards updates.  Access the complete article here.

The Dust Mitigation Committee has subsequently grown to over 40 members from all areas of the industry including a full gamut of producers and suppliers. Alfredo Sarli, Air Systems Applications Specialist at Valmet, has been the chair of the committee since day one. He says, “I decided to join and lead the committee due to my work in the area of Yankee Dryers, and this topic is very pertinent to us at Valmet as we produce engineered solutions for dust mitigation at mills. “

There has been a lot of traction with this topic at TAPPI, and we have seen an unprecedented amount of sign-ups for the committee, signalling that dust mitigation is of growing importance in the tissue industry. Added to this, insurance companies are looking for mills to increase control of fire risks.”

One of the main reasons for the growing interest in the mitigation of dust at tissue mills is due to the improving quality of tissue, and in particular increased softness of the final product. Chase explains, “Consumers and therefore manufacturers want softer and softer products that unfortunately cause more dust in the manufacturing process, so this situation is not going to get better or self-correct. We must find ways to deal with the problem, which means attacking it from all angles, reducing the dust where we can, as well as dealing with the dust that we can’t eliminate. This is where having a team of experts on the committee comes in.”

Sarli adds, “Increased softness is definitely the trend, and we are in a market where manufacturers are trying to make better and better quality tissue. Unfortunately, dust is a necessary evil to achieve these improved quality aims. This is why dust mitigation has become such an important issue.”