Retention & Drainage
Keep fines and filler where they add value; improve drainage for cleaner, more consistent sheets.
Customer Challenge / Issue
To produce high-quality paper, papermakers must balance retention, drainage, and formation. Axchem offers a wide range of aids to help achieve this balance, including microparticles, polymers, and charge control agents.
Axchem Solution
Axchem offers comprehensive programs suitable for a wide range of paper grades such as packaging and graphic papers. Furthermore, we can adapt the technology to optimize performance on every machine. The AXFLOC® program, ideally paired with a coagulant, provides numerous benefits including enhanced dewatering, improved fine and fiber retention, which contribute to better sheet formation. Our technologies are available globally and can be applied across various paper grades, including neutral and alkaline-coated fine paper, uncoated fine paper, white top, recycled board, tissue, and towel. Additionally, our microparticle technologies, accessible in most regions worldwide, comprise innovative organic and inorganic products with unique microstructures that ensure optimal retention and drainage across different paper machine processes.
Benefits
AF 170 advanced retention and drainage aids are designed with an organic polymer that interacts with cationic sites on fibers, fines, and fillers to form microflocs. These microflocs offer retention while allowing for higher levels of drainage compared to traditional flocculants, which create larger flocs that are more difficult to dry. Cationic sites are typically provided by additives such as alum, polyaluminum chloride (PAC), cationic flocculants, cationic starch, and/or polyamide wet-strength resins. In some programs, cationic flocculants are utilized in addition to, or instead of, alum or PAC to provide additional cationic sites to enhance performance.
