100 Year Anniversary

TAPPI's Centennial Celebration

In February 1915, thirty-five visionary industrialists met andformed the Technical Session of the American Paper and Pulp Association for the purpose of exchanging views and mutual knowledge and to advance the art of papermaking. By September, their number had swelled to 125. The group voted to become an autonomous body with a new name: the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry - TAPPI was born!

TAPPI's growth and success were startling. Our members advanced the industry through knowledge sharing, creating thousands of technical articles, innovative research, definitive conferences and detailed courses. The people who generously shared their time and talent to build TAPPI - like those who sustain it today - come from every pulp, paper, packaging producer and supplier company from around the world.

The TAPPI Centennial Celebration will be a year-long series of outreach events and educational offerings showcasing the proud history and promising future of the global pulp, paper, packaging and related industries. This once-in-a-lifetime event will expand public awareness, foster further connection, and provide outstanding opportunities for collaboration, growth and investment in our future for all those involved. Goals for the TAPPI Centennial Celebration are:

1. To honor TAPPI's 100 years of connection, education, and advancement as a foundation for the sustainable success of our members, our industries, and the world we share.
2. To recognize the achievements of those who built our industry, and to inspire those who seek to build its future.
3. To celebrate the contributions and innovations of the global pulp, paper, and packaging industries to human culture, commerce, health, and social advancement.
4. To sustain the industry and support its growth, vitalityand future through the TAPPI Foundation.

 

100 Years Of TAPPI

Thoughts

Keith Kemp

“I would have to say that one of the industry's most significant contributions has been sustainability.

Whole Tree Pulping Experiment by Bill Fuller

Before I get into the discussion of the attached technical papers, a review of the history of utilizing un-debarked wood in the form of whole tree chips, whole stemwood chips, unprocessed tops, “puckerbrush”, stumps and a variety of other tree parts chipped without removal of bark, foliage, dirt and slow squirrels.

Ted Wegner

Over the three plus decades that I have been associated with the industry, I have seen great improvements in productivity.

Paul Krochak

The biggest breakthrough probably relates to the increased efficiency of paper machines and the production process.

Jon Humphrey

One thing I would like to highlight is the new vision from TAPPI with the TAPPISAFE program.

36 Long Distance Runners - Paper Trade Journal

A few other U.S. paper mills with histories of varied ownership of equal age or older, but only 31 of today's active mills have appeared in every edition of Lockwood's Directory from 1873 onward without change in location or substantial altering of company name, although some are now subsidiaries of other companies

Innovations

Write-in-the-Rain by John Neun

In my lifetime, the most significant technical events in papermaking have been the adaptation of gap formers and the shoe press, and the conversion of clothing to synthetic materials.

Brian Brogdon

There have been numerous developments in our industry over the past 100 years.

Memories

Lake States TAPPI/North Central PIMA 100 Year Presentation

Lake States TAPPI/North Central PIMA, Miron Construction, Appleton Coated, Paper Discovery Center and UWSP Paper Science Foundation collaborated create an award-winning display, shown as part of the Centennial Celebration Museum in Atlanta.

Teaching Disney about Paper by Dave Peakes

TAPPI staff received a request from Disney World, Orlando, Florida, to have a meeting at TAPPI offices to discuss TAPPI inquiry about an exhibit.

Paper and Board Division: 77 Years of Service to the Industry

The birth of the Paper and Board Manufacture Division occurred during TAPPI's 24th Annual Meeting, which was held at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City on February 20, 1939. At this meeting, the Operating Division, which had been formed in 1930, was formally dissolved and two new divisions were formed: Paper and Board Manufacture and Pulp Manufacture.

History of TAPPI Conference Fun Runs by Frank Sutman and Steve Ottone

BE&K and Pulp and Paper Magazine started the “Paper Chase 5K” at the 1983 Engineering Conference in Dallas.

45 Years of Membership by Bruce Lyne

Having been a member for more than 45 years, I can look back on many opportunities that TAPPI has given me to work and interact with the giants of our industry, and the way this helped guide my career path.

Westbrook Steele - Memories by Megan Murray Wilholt

Westbrook Steele arrived in Appleton in 1928 to assist Lawrence College in its ambitious reorganization program.

Memory by Raj Attalla

I want to acknowledge a number of individuals who influenced my path along the way and inspired me.

Mentor Experiences

The Start of the Twin Wire Former Mentoring by Ben Thorp

In the 1950's, Time-Life Corp. forecasted a growth in postal rates which would have made it cost prohibitive to mail magazines that used 50 + pound sheets.

 

Congratulations to our winning Student chapters!

• Western Michigan University - Grand Prize Winner $5,000!
• University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point - 1st Runner-Up $2,500!
• University of Washington - 2nd Runner-Up $1,000!

See them all! All videos are now available for viewing on TAPPI's Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/channels/tappistudentvideocomp

 

A big Thank You to the following student chapters who participated in
TAPPI's Centennial Celebration Student Video Competition!

• Alabama Southern Community College
• Auburn University
• Indian Institute of Technology
• Miami University (Ohio)
• North Carolina State University
• University of Maine
• University of Wisconsin - Stout

Learn more information here about TAPPI Student Chapters, TAPPI Student membership, TAPPI scholarships, and other ways TAPPI supports students.

Questions? Contact Lisa Lockwood at llockwood@tappi.org.

Spotlight on Solenis: An Interview with Chris Robinson - Vol 2 No. 4

Each issue of the Centennial Newsletter will spotlight major sponsors of TAPPI's 100th anniversary celebration. This issue we begin with an interview with Charles Robinson, Senior Vice President, Pulp and Paper with Solenis.

Solenis is a leading global specialty chemical supplier to the pulp and paper, oil and gas, chemical processing, mining, biorefining and power markets. Notably, Solenis is the #1 global producer of specialty papermaking chemicals, operating 30 manufacturing facilities strategically located near customers around the globe.  Their product portfolio includes a broad array of process, water treatment and functional chemistries and state-of-the-art monitoring and control systems and 

Spotlight on Packaging Corporation of America - Vol 2 No. 7

Each issue of the Centennial Newsletter spotlights a different sponsor of TAPPI's 100th anniversary celebration.  This issue begins with an interview with Ellsworth Townsend, Operations Manager with Packaging Corporation of America (PCA).

PCA is a leading provider of packaging, transportation and display products of all kinds. With corrugated products their main area of expertise, they provide their customers with conventional shipping containers, custom-printed corrugated boxes, custom packaging or eye-catching retail visual displays. 

Centennial Museum Displays Grabs Attention - Vol 2 No. 8

Lake States TAPPI/North Central PIMA, Miron Construction, Appleton Coated, Paper Discovery Center and UWSP Paper Science Foundation collaborated to create an award-winning display, shown as part of the Centennial Celebration Museum in Atlanta and now available online, that includes an “Honoring Our Past, Inspiring Our Future” brochure, a Paper Industry International Hall of Fame Inductee presentation, a presentation highlighting vintage paper mills in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan dating back more than 100 years, information on UWSP Paper Science Foundation, and a Paper Industry International Hall of Fame nominee package.

Centennial Celebration Sponsorships Increase

ATLANTA, Ga., September 19, 2014- Sponsorships for the2015 TAPPI Centennial Celebration have reached nearly $790,000. This amount continues to grow as additional sponsors are added and TAPPI moves toward its goal of $1.5 million. Contributions go toward outreach activities and educational programs recognizing the 100th Anniversary of TAPPI.

“Sponsorship for the Centennial Celebration provides the financial support that will enable TAPPI to spread the century long story our industry has to tell,” said Larry N. Montague, president and CEO of TAPPI. “The year-long festivities will offer a variety of events and opportunities that will honor the industry's extremely proud past as well as highlight its promising and exciting future.”

The TAPPI Centennial Celebration will feature a series of outreach events and educational offerings showcasing the history of the global pulp, paper and packaging, and related industries as well as looking toward the future. Activities and items will include local PIMA and TAPPI section and student chapter events, a student competition, an online calendar highlighting innovations in the industry each day and a coffee table book “Celebrating a Century of Achievement”. The year-long celebration will be highlighted by a Gala dinner on April 20, 2015, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Major sponsors of the 2015 TAPPI Centennial Celebration include: Buckman (Centurion Sponsor); Nalco, NewPage and MWV (Platinum Sponsors); Sappi, Domtar and Valmet (Gold Sponsors); Dow Chemical, GL&V, Kadant, PCA, and Solenis (Silver Sponsors). Bronze sponsors include ABB, BrightKey, FM Global, Georgia-Pacific, Green Bay Packaging, Honeywell, Hood Container, Imerys, Ingredion, Jacobs Engineering, MICA, Optest Equipment Inc., Penford Products Co., Poyry, Soundview Paper, SUN Automation Group, Wausau and Yates. Supporting sponsors include Cascades Sonoco, Jedson Engineering, Kruger, Inc., Shepard Exhibition Services and SunTrust Bank.

 

Nalco Platinum Sponsor for TAPPI's 100th Anniversary

ATLANTA, Ga., September 26, 2014- TAPPI is pleased to announce Nalco, an Ecolab Company, is to be a Centennial Celebration Platinum sponsor. In addition to supporting the celebration, Nalco's contribution will help promote the future of global pulp, paper, packaging and related industries through student and young professional initiatives. The 100th Anniversary Celebration will feature a year-long series of outreach events and educational offerings showcasing the history of the industry as well as forthcoming advancements in technology.

“We appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this celebration, honoring the growth of the industry over the past 100 years and looking toward its future,” said Senior Vice President and General Manager of Nalco's Global Paper Division, Jeff Bulischeck. “For more than 90 successful years, Nalco has upheld a strong track record of bringing innovations to the global paper industry. Nalco is firmly committed to the development and sustainability of the industry through innovation and value delivery.”

“Nalco continues to be a key participant in the growth of our industry. Their efforts to serve as TAPPI members in addition to the many technical innovations Nalco contributes to papermaking chemistry and plant operations are significant factors for the continued growth and success of the industry,” said Larry N. Montague, TAPPI president and CEO. “We're very excited to have Nalco as a Platinum sponsor for TAPPI's 100th Anniversary Celebration.”

Many events, including the annual PaperCon conference, will be co-locating with the Centennial Celebration. The year's activities will include local PIMA and TAPPI section and student chapter events, a student competition, and publication of an online calendar highlighting industry innovations each day as well as a coffee table book: “Celebrating a Century of Achievement”. The celebration will be highlighted by a gala dinner on April 20, 2015, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

 

NewPage Platinum Sponsor for TAPPI's 100th Anniversary

ATLANTA, Ga., USA, September 26, 2014- TAPPI is pleased to announce NewPage is a Centennial Celebration Platinum sponsor. In addition to supporting the celebration, NewPage's contribution helps promote the future of global pulp, paper, packaging and related industries through student and young professional initiatives. The celebration will feature a year-long series of outreach events and educational offerings showcasing the history of the industry as well as highlighting forthcoming advancements in technology.

“NewPage has benefitted tremendously, as have multiple others, from the many contributions TAPPI has made to the growth and development of the pulp, paper and packaging industry over the last 100 years,” said George F. Martin, president and chief executive officer at NewPage. “TAPPI provides a wide range of educational and information services that have been key to the growth and development of our industry and our employees. We appreciate the opportunity to contribute to and be a part of this celebration highlighting TAPPI and our industry's proud history of innovation and sustainability and its bright future.”

 

Southworth Co.'s Paperlogic hopes innovative nanocellulose papers keep Turners Falls mill busy

Tiny fibers might turn into big business for Paperlogic, a unit of Southworth Co., as it searches for new products to keep its 120-year-old paper mill in Turners Falls busy and its workers employed as it exits the office paper business. Nano, which means one billionth, as in a billionth of a meter in size, is very very big in the technology world today: nanocomputers, nanomedicine and in the paper industry, nanocellulose nanofibrils.

Nanocellulose, said Ken Schelling, mill manager for Paperlogic in Turners Falls, is the same plant fibers paper makers have been using since the beginning of time. But now scientists are able to separate those fibers down until they are as small as they can be while still being cellulose. The company has received a $350,000 grant from the federal government and help from paper making equipment suppliers to start grinding wood pulp into nanofibers at its mill in Turners Falls. Schelling hopes to get the new equipment up and running in the first half of 2015.

For months, the mill has been experimenting using nanocellulose produced in a laboratory at the University of Maine. The equipment basically just tears the fibers apart, he said.

"It's breaking the fiber down to the molecular level," Schelling said.

Once scientists and engineers get the fibers that small, cellulose starts to take on some weird, but promising, properties.

If the pulp Paperlogic uses to make most of its paper looks like lumpy cottage cheese or oatmeal, liquefied nanocellulose from Maine looks like Cream of Wheat or like a gell. It flowed easily as Schelling poured some out onto a table and formed it into a low symmetrical glob. He said it will dry overnight into a hard, tough disc. Nanocellulose can absorb much more water than the regular pulped fiber. Made into paper, nanocellulose forms a tighter, smoother bond. Schelling can pull and rattle nancoelluslose paper made at the Turners Falls Mill. It is hard to tear. He takes an eyedropper from the mill's lab and gets the paper wet. Water stays bubbled up on the surface like it does on the finish of a new car.

Regular paper needs to be coated in order to shed water, grease or other fluids that well, Schelling said. PaperLogic Mill manager and technical director Kenneth Schelling holds a piece experimental nanofiber composite paper that is being developed at the company.JOHN SUCHOCKI / THE REPUBLICAN That makes nanocellulose a good choice to replace the parchment-type baking paper used in commercial bakeries and home kitchens. Nanocellulose wouldn't have to be coated with silicon or chromium. The nanocellulose paper would be biodegradable and environmentally favorable.

There are other uses like bandages and substrates for manufacturing. Nanocellulose paper is opaque and doesn't block light. That quality might lend itself to some practical uses. A University of Massachusetts Amherst professor wants to use nanocellulose paper as a substrate to print 3-D medical implants and other tiny machines. According to those in the paper industry, market forecasters covering nanotechnology and nanomaterials predict that by 2020 the nanocellulose market in North America alone will be worth $250 million. Paperlogic wants to be in on the ground floor of that business.

"People have been working with nanocellulose in laboratories for years. It is time to scale the technology up to manufacturing. I think we can be an important rung in that ladder," Schelling said. It is important for Schelling and Paperlogic to find something different. In 2012 Southworth Co. sold its venerable brand of business paper to Neenah Paper of Wisconsin. Some paper in the Southworth line is made in Turners Falls. But Schelling expects production to shift to Neenah's mills. Southworth has other products it plans to continue to make at Turners Falls, such as watercolor paper for artists or decor paper for laminated countertops or furniture. The mill has about 60 employees. "But no one is buying copy paper anymore, or at least not as much of it as they were," Schelling said.

The paper industry, once a big part of the Pioneer Valley's economic life, is holding on, and in some ways growing. Mohawk Fine Papers Inc. plans to employ 37 full-time workers at an envelope factory it plans to establish in South Hadley. There is also Erving Industries in Erving, the well-known Crane & Co., which makes products including currency paper in Dalton, and Onyx, a specialty paper company in South Lee. Hazen Paper has plants in Holyoke, Great Barrington and Osgood, Ind.

TAPPI Announces Young Professionals Top 20 Under 30 Winners

ATLANTA, Ga., USA, Feb. 4 - TAPPI is pleased to announce the winners of the Young Professionals Division's Top 20 Under 30 Contest. The contest was intended to recognize individuals under the age of 30 who are emerging leaders in the global pulp, paper, packaging and related industries.

A group of established TAPPI members reviewed the nomination forms and collaborated on selecting the winning individuals.

The Top 20 Young Professionals Under 30:

Bradely Wright, Sawmill Superintendent at MWV in Phenix City, Alabama; 26 years old.
Stephen Tjan, Paper Machine Technical Assistant at Green Bay Packaging in North Little Rock, Arkansas; 23 years old.
David Thompson, Area Manager/Paper Industry Consultant at ChemTreat, Inc. in San Diego, California; 29 years old.
Sneha Swaminathan, Scientist at Hollingsworth-Vose in West Groton, Massachusetts; 30 years old.
Cody Stevens, Project Engineer at Weyerhauser in Savannah, Georgia; 27 years old.
John Sly, Paper Mill Shift Supervisor at RockTenn in Seattle, Washington; 25 years old.
Marshelle Slayton, Process Engineer at Sonoco in Appleton, Wisconsin; 24 years old.
Jesse Shade, Process Engineer (REACH) at International Paper in Mansfield, Louisiana; 24 years old.
Caleb Sargent, Sr. Boiler Process Engineer at MWV in Lexington, Virginia; 26 years old.
Sudip Neupane, Innovation Lead at MWV in Evadale, Texas; 28 years old.
Stephen Moses, Pulp Supervisor at Domtar in Ashdown, Arkansas; 26 years old.
Melissa Kuo, Process Engineer at Clearwater Paper Corp. in Clarkston, Washington; 27 years old.
Erin Jordan, MB Applications Specialist at Solenis in Moorseville, North Carolina; 27 years old.
Eric Hanington, Chemical Additives/Core-Link Are Process Manager at International Paper in Blythewood, South Carolina; 28 years old.
Sarah Dawkins, Chemical Process Design Group at O'Neil in Anderson, South Carolina; 25 years old.
Omkar Chandorkar, Application Specialist - Research and Development at EcoSynthetix in Burlington, Ontario; 29 years old.
Sabrina Burkhardt, Pulping and Bleaching Supervisor at Econotech in Delta, British Columbia; 26 years old.
Stephanie Boyce, Research Scientist at Georgia Pacific in Neenah, Wisconsin; 29 years old.
Alex Beam, Process Specialist at Domtar in Tell City, Indiana; 27 years old.
Adebola Adedire, Account Manager at Solenis in Little Rock, Arkansas; 27 years old.
In addition to being recognized throughout 2015 in TAPPI's various publications and online, the winners will be invited to attend their division-specific TAPPI conference during 2015 to receive their award.

TAPPI congratulates the winners and thanks all of the Young Professionals who submitted nomination forms.