Chapter 21 Substrates 383
Important Terms
basic size
bleaching
calendering
cellulose
chain of custody
chipper
coated paper
de-inking
elemental chlorine
equivalent weight
fi llers
fourdrinier machine
furnish
grades
grain
grain long
grain short
lignin
opacity
paper fl atness
petrochemicals
Substrates include any material with a surface
that can be printed or coated. Although the most
common printing substrate is paper, substances
such as plastic, metal, and wood are also classifi ed
as substrates.
Matching the substrate to the job is critical. A
high-quality layout, plate, ink, and printing technique
will be wasted if a low-quality substrate is used. On
the other hand, expensive stock should not be used
to print low-quality products such as newspapers
or sales fl yers. Salespeople, designers, strippers,
press operators, and fi nishing and binding personnel
must have knowledge of the characteristics of paper
and its applications. Its misuse can be very costly.
More than one thousand different grades of paper
are listed in paper merchant’s catalogs.
Papermaking
History
Most paper is manufactured using machine
technology, although some paper is still handmade.
The use of handmade papers is usually limited to
special applications, such as fi ne art reproductions,
or limited editions of books printed and bound by
craft workers using hand methods.
Some historical highlights of papermaking are:
• 105 A.D.—Ts’ai Lun, a Chinese offi cial, mixed
the bark of the mulberry tree with linen and
hemp to make a crude form of paper.
• 500 A.D.—The Mayans produced paper using
fi g tree bark.
• 751 A.D.—Papermaking spread to Europe
as a result of the Crusades and the Moorish
conquest of northern Africa and Spain.
• 1400 A.D.—Papermaking by hand fl ourished.
• 1690 A.D.—The fi rst paper mill in America
was established near Philadelphia by William
Rittenhouse and William Bradford.
• 1798 A.D.—Nicholas Louis Robert of France
invented a machine with an endless wire
screen to produce paper in rolls. The machine
was fi nanced by two English merchants, the
Fourdrinier brothers, and was named the
American fourdrinier machine.
Most of the paper manufactured in the United
States today is made on the fourdrinier machine.
It can produce continuous sheets of paper up to 33′
(10 m) wide at speeds faster than 3000′ (900 m) per
minute. Some fourdrinier machines are more than
350′ (110 m) long. The mechanical principles of the
original machine have remained nearly unchanged.
Other inventions have occurred, but many are simply
refi nements.
Signifi cant improvements in papermaking in
recent years include thermomechanical pulping,
synthetic wires and felts, twin-wire machines, and the
use of computers to control pulping and papermaking
operations. Paper manufacturers have also worked
to improve pollution control and energy conservation
in the industry.
Making Paper
For centuries, the principle raw materials used in
papermaking were cotton and linen fi bers obtained
from rags. Some cotton and linen fi bers are still used
for high-quality writing papers, business letterhead
papers, art papers, and documents that will be kept
for years. However, cellulose is the raw material
used to make most paper today.
postconsumer paper
waste
preconsumer paper
waste
print strength
printability
pulpers
ream
recycled paper
show-through
sizing
substance weight
substrate
supercalendering
tensile strength
thermoformed
totally chlorine free
(TCF)
trim
uncoated paper
watermark
substrate: Any material with a surface that can be printed
or coated.
fourdrinier machine: A paper machine that forms a
continuous web of paper on a moving, endless wire belt.
cellulose: The raw material used to make paper.