Average fibre length as a measure of the amount of long fibres in mechanical pulps – ranking of pulps may shift

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the applicability of different ways of calculating the average fibre length based on length measurements of individual particles of mechanical pulps. We have found that the commonly used average length-weighted fibre length, which is based on the assumption that coarseness is constant for all particles, as well as the arithmetic average, may lead to erroneous conclusions in real life as well as in simulations when used as a measure of the amount of long fibres. The average length-length-weighted fibre length or a weighting close to that, which to a larger extent suppresses the influence of shorter particles, is a relevant parameter of the “length” factor, i. e. amount of long fibres. Our findings are based on three studies: refining of different assortments of wood raw material in a mill; data from LC refining in mill of TMP, including Bauer McNett fractionation; mixing of pulps with different fibre length distributions. If the acceptable average fibre length for different products can be lowered, the possibility of reducing the specific energy input in refining will increase. Therefore, we need a reliable and appropriate way to assess the “length” factor.