Fillers
Adding mineral fillers to paper stocks is currently a must for manufacturers of writing, printing or packaging papers and paperboard grades. Filled papers offer significant advantages over unfilled and uncoated grades
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Surface appearance
The addition of fillers gives a more pleasing finish. Fillers gather in the crevices and pores of uncoated papers to create a more uniform surface.
Smoothness
Papers that feel smooth to the touch have a superior surface quality, for improved printability.
Optical properties
Adding fillers to paper achieves a distinct increase in brightness, opacity and gloss.
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Price
As a rule, mineral fillers are low-cost products compared to fiber, which means that filler-loaded paper products are often cheaper to manufacture. As an additional benefit, the use of mineral fillers saves valuable natural biomass resources like trees, forests and annual plants.
The significance of these qualitative, economic and ecological advantages of filler in the paper industry should not be underestimated.
A series of fillers based on natural ground calcium carbonate (GCC) and precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) is available on the market today. The products differ in particle size, particle size distribution, specific surface and brightness and are usually shipped as a dispersion in water with solid content up to 70%.
Typical Omya products are the well known slurries
- Hydrocarb® (GCC) and
- Omya Syncarb® (PCC).
Innovation
Significant investment in research and development ensures that Omya fillers and pigments satisfy tomorrow’s requirements today.
