Current Development Trends of Neutral Sizing Agents

In the early stages, the conversion from an acid size system to a system producing alkaline sized paper has been implemented in coated base because of the use of a coated broke which includes calcium carbonate. Recently, the conversion from an acid size system to PPC paper production has been greatly expanding because of improved copy ability due to the positive polarity of the toner, and because of the increased use of recycled paper which serves to alleviate environmental concerns.Many papermakers have believed that alkaline papermaking results in low runnability. Recently, however, the runnability of alkaline papermaking is improving because of developments in papermaking technology and due to the use of improved neutral sizing agents.In this article, developmental trends in reactive alkaline sizes, as they relate to runnability, are briefly discussed.