A New Approach for Quantitative Analysis of Paper Structure at Fibre Level

摘要

Quantitative analysis of paper structure at fibre level has long been required for better understanding of paper structure. Quality cross-sectional images of a sheet are essential to quantify the dimensions and orientation of individual fibres in the sheet. The images should be clear enough to be able to show details of the individual fibres in the sheet and free of artifacts. The combination of a sample embedding technique and confocal laser scanning microscopy is used in this study to obtain quality cross-sectional images of paper. The fibre dimensions and orientation in the sheet are quantified with a new method. The new method is validated by comparing the results of fibre wall area, measured in a sheet by the new method, with that measured on slides by the conventional confocal method. A new term, fill factor of fibre, is defined and used to quantitatively characterize the behaviour of individual fibres after wet pressing at different pressures. The utility of the fill factor for describing the degree of collapse of fibres in a sheet is discussed.