Control over the frictional properties of paper and cardboard is very important when manufacturing paper-based packaging. Slip and skidding of paper-based products due to a low coefficient of friction can cause of production delays, increased production cost, safety issues, and damage to packaged materials. LUDOX® colloidal silica can be used as an anti-slip paper coating to effectively increase the coefficient of friction on paper and cardboard to prevent issues caused by slip and skid.
Common Issues Caused by Slip & Skid of Paper
Telescoping
Telescoping, a defect that occurs during paper winding, can be costly to paper manufacturers and converters using web presses. Telescoping can happen when a force is applied to a roll of paper that overcomes the coefficient of friction and the edges of the paper become progressively misaligned. These rolls are difficult to unwind with uniform tension and will deform, causing printing distortions and breakage of the web during converting.
Slipping of Stacked Cardboard
Slipping and skidding of stacked paper and cardboard sheets during CNC cutting or boxing can lead to defects in the final product, ultimately increasing production costs. In addition, slipping of stacked packaged goods during transport and storage can lead to product damage, resulting in safety issues and injury to personnel.
Paper Feed Errors
Improper feeding of paper through transport rollers is often caused by inadequate friction between the paper and the equipment. This slipping leads to poor print quality, production delays, and damage to equipment. To combat this problem, the frictional properties of the paper to the equipment as well as the frictional properties of the paper to paper must be carefully controlled.
The Anti-Slip Solution: LUDOX®
LUDOX® colloidal silica is a water-based dispersion that can easily be applied without prior agitation to liner board paper, photocopier paper, recycled paper, corrugated sheets, and boxes to produce a transparent anti-slip paper coating. This coating, which leverages the high surface area inherent to colloidal silica, increases the coefficient of friction of surfaces, providing excellent friction retention as well as optimum slide angle performance. In most cases, slide angle improvements of 10-15°can usually be achieved from the anti-slip coating. The result is paper rolls that are more resistant to telescoping, corrugated sheets and boxes that are less likely to slip when stacked, and paper sheets that are easier to feed through transport rollers.
In addition, LUDOX® offers added value downstream in manufacturing processes when boxes and paper packaging materials are printed. When applied to an uncoated paper surface, LUDOX® acts as a dye acceptor to improve ink retention and provides enhancements to gloss and print quality.
LUDOX® may be coated to paper and paperboard surfaces using sponges, rollers, or a combination of both. LUDOX® CL-P and LUDOX® CL-X have been specially formulated to offer optimal anti-slip performance on paper and easy cleanup of dried deposits that remain on coating equipment surfaces.
Conclusion
Manufacturers of paper, boxboard, and cardboard suffer setbacks in efficiency and risk the safety of their personnel when their products do not have sufficient anti-slip properties on the surface of their paper products. These manifest as processing issues of telescoping, feed-error slippage, and slippage during stacking. LUDOX® CL-P and LUDOX® CL-X are used to create anti-slip paper coatings, which mitigate these issues by increasing the coefficient of friction onto paper and cardboard products.
