Mechanical Pulping of Southern Pine Wood

High resin content, high summerwood content, and susceptibility to blue stain have been the source of major difficulties in attempts to produce satisfactory groundwood from southern pine. This paper reviews the 30-year history of the newsprint industry in the South, placing special emphasis on the techniques employed to overcome these problems. Modern operating practices and equipment used in groundwood operation in the South are discussed, and opportunities for future improvements are presented. Means of mechanically working the summerwood fibers would seem to be basic to further improving the mechanical pulp processes. The grinder stone presents a somewhat limited versatility in dealing with the problem; disk refining would seem to offer some opportunities. An alternative to mechanical processing of the summerwood fibers may be the elimination or reduction of these fibers through tree breeding. Over half of the current expansion in the newsprint industry of the USA is taking place in the South as shown on an accompanying map.

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