A Novel Technique for Characterizing the Influence of Refining Energy on the Mechanical Properties of TMP Fibres

Mechanical fibres are commonly characterized by measuring their length distribution and freeness. These parameters, however, do not adequately characterize the influence of refining on their mechanical properties. In this work we conducted multiple compression on fibre mats prepared from different length fractions (Bauer McNet fractions) to generate stress-strain curves from which several quality parameters can be derived such as modulus, stress and toughness. We found that these characteristics of fibre are strongly influenced by the refining energy used to produce pulp; fibres of similar length exhibit different mechanical properties depending on the refining energy6 consumption.