History of felt along with paper

(1) Invention of paper by Ts'ai Lun.

It is said that a Chinese officer named Ts'ai Lun in the Hou-han Dynasty at the beginning of the 2nd century invented the art of paper-making. In those days, very heavy, flat wood and bamboo called "mokkan" and "chikkan", were used for writing on. The history book "Shih-chi" by Ssu-ma Ch'ien was written on mokkan and the total volume of the story became 3-4 cow-wagons full! Since stories written on light silk were extremely expensive, Ts'ai Lun got his idea from thin, dried, horse dung, which had been trampled and smashed. He liquefied wood bark and small chips of wood into water, scooped it out with a net and diluted it. Then he dried it in the sun to make paper. Felt was not even in the picture at this stage!

This paper-making art was introduced to Japan at the beginning of the 7th century (Nara Era) and to Europe in the 12th century. This art was improved in Japan and the result was our handmade Japanese paper.


(2)

Invention of paper-making machine
Development of paper-making felt

The Industrial Revolution started in England around the beginning of the 19th century and the paper industry was also involved in the mechanization of the textile industry. The wool industry had been so popular in Europe, especially in England, since the Middle Ages, that the paper-making machine, which made good use of wool to dry paper quickly, was invented after much study and improvement.

The paper-making machine succeeded in utilization for the first time in 1807.

The felt used in those days was made of wool which was endlessly woven, with a smooth surface and with good water absorption through the process of napping and felting. This was called woven felt. This type of felt is still used for a few paper-making machines even today. The bronze wire in the drawing above was an endless metal product as well. This part is also called the forming section.


(3) Foundation of paper-making industry in Japan


The mass production of paper started in Europe and the US toward the end of the 19th century. In Japan importing foreign paper started when Japan was opened to foreign trade. In 1872, the first paper-making company was formed in Japan and began operations in 1874. The government controlled paper-making company (later the Printing Bureau) was established in 1875 at the site of the paper-making company (Kita-Ku, Oji, Tokyo) for the purpose of printing paper money without using imported paper.

Upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914 it became difficult to import felt. As a result, in 1917, Nippon Felt Co., Ltd. was established and started to produce felt. After that Japan no longer needed to rely on imports of paper and felt.
(See HISTORY in CORPORATE GUIDE.)

The years after the Industrial Revolution were the best times for the woven felt industry. The popular paper-making machines were the fourdrinier machine and the cylinder machine mentioned below.


Fourdrinier Machine

Cylinder Machine

The formation is made from liquefied pulp through the forming section which then becomes wet web. This wet web is squeezed of all its water by the loading of the pressing roll on the felt. It is then conveyed to a canvas where it is heated and steam-dried. And finally paper is made. It is interesting to note that paper-making machines today basically go through a similar process.


(4) The age of technological innovation

After World War II, the improvement and innovation of the paper-making machine began. Soon the paper-making machine, which had become larger in scale, ran at higher speeds, had a higher loading (nip-pressure in the press section: press by roll), and along with improvements in paper-making technology had greatly influenced the pulp and paper industry.

Needled felt had taken the place of traditional woven felt, changing from wool to synthetic textiles. Felt made out of 100% synthetic textiles became popular.
The fundamental construction of needled felt is to needle or interlock the batt (a sheet of matted short fiber) on the surface of the base fabric (generally a weaving loom weaves the fabric) using a needle.

Due to improvements on the paper-making machine, the forming section was changed from using bronze wire to plastic wire (cloth woven on weaving loom with synthetic textile like a fishing line). As a result, installation (applied to paper-making machine: it gets worn out the same as the felt so it also has to be replaced once in a while) is much easier and the life cycle has been extended several times over.

All out efforts to improve paper-making technology and the functions of paper machine clothing have been made in this industry.
(See PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES.)