The Influence of Pigmental Surface Sizing on the Physical and Laser Printing Properties of Paper

In order to improve the physical and color laser printing properties of paper, the polyvinyl alcohol and silica were used for pigmental surface sizing of paper. Under the previous conditions of solid content 12% and 14%, the effects of different ratio of PVA and silica such as 100:0, 15:1, 10:1, 5:1, and 1:1 on the physical properties of paper and laser printing performance were investigated. The brightness, opacity, roughness, color density, gray scale and image definition were measured after the surface sizing paper was calendared under the condition of temperature 70°C and pressure 4MPa. When the solid content was 12%, PVA: SiO2 was 1:1 and the solid content was 14%, PVA:SiO2 was 10:1, the brightness and opacity of paper obtained the maximum values. With the increase of silica proportion roughness increased at first and then decreased. Color density and tone reproducibility of paper was significantly improved by the pigmental sizing treatment as well as the dots and lines definition. The reasonable pigmental sizing scheme was as follow: solid content was 12%, PVA:SiO2 was 1:1, sizing temperature was 60°C, calendar temperature was 70°C and calendar pressure was 4MPa.