Décor Paper/Laminate is the third largest user of titanium dioxide (takes 10% in the total amount of titanium dioxide) Titanium dioxide is not commonly used in lowgrade paper with consideration of the production cost. Instead, porcelain clay, talcum powder and calcium carbonate are mainly used. But they will lower the strength of paper and increases the weight of paper.
Titanium dioxide must be used in decorative paper, Bible paper and paper currency (such as dictionary, illustrated newspaper, magazine cover, computer, paper money, printer paper and decorative paper, etc.). The paper with use of titanium dioxide usually has better whiteness, higher strength and more luster. It is thinner and smoother, and will not be penetrated during printing. On uniform conditions, its opacity is 10 times higher than that of calcium carbonate and talcum powder, and the weight is also reduced by 15%~30%.
Decorative paper is also known as titanium dioxide paper, which is mainly used as the raw material for production of furniture, floor boards and wallpaper. For the paper requiring aging resistance, rutile must be used; in most cases, rutile is used in the paper with high ash content. Rutile must be used in such paper with high ash content because the covering power of anatase titanium dioxide cannot meet the requirement. Anatases titanium dioxide is used in the paper with low ash content, such as Bible paper, paper money and etc. Bible paper requires good opacity of paper, which can be met fairly with anatase titanium dioxide; the paper money also requires good opacity and is also usually made of anatase type. Within China, the amount of titanium dioxide used in decorative paper is far more than that in the other two types. This situation is determined by the consumption level of our country. Due to the great demand of house decoration and costly furniture, the use level of decorative paper is rising gradually; since the Bible paper takes titanium dioxide as the raw material, the cost is far higher than that of the general paper. In view of the consumption level, the market for Bible paper is limited; also, the use for paper money making is under the control of the state, the amount used will stay relatively stable and will cause no impact on the market of titanium dioxide. According to incomplete statistics, the amount of titanium dioxide used in decorative paper in China for each year exceeds 200,000 tons. The content of titanium dioxide in decorative paper is 30-50%, while that in other paper is 15%. Since traditional manufacturing factories of culture paper are transforming to produce decorative paper one after another, the gain in yield of decorative paper is fast, and the price of decorative paper is on a declining curve. However, no matter what type of paper it is, the manufacturing flow is the same.
Rutile is used in paper with weather resistance and high ash content.
Anatase type is used in paper with low requirement of weather resistance and low ash content.
The primary factor that determines what type of titanium dioxide a papermaking factory should use is the cost production of papermaking, namely the cost performance of titanium dioxide. Since the cost proportion of titanium dioxide in papermaking reaches up to 30-50%, the papermaking factories, under circumstances of satisfaction of customer demand, square accounts in every detail when choosing titanium dioxide. When they can use anatase type, they definitely do not use rutile.
The quality requirements of Décor Paper/Laminateon titanium dioxide in order of importance:
1) Covering power (opacity): The ability of paper with same content of titanium dioxide to cover the ground color. This indicator determines the cost performance of titanium dioxide. Simply speaking, titanium dioxide with high covering power usually has a higher price with a less usage amount, so the cost of titanium dioxide in each ton of paper may be lower; though the price of titanium dioxide with lower covering power is lower, the usage amount is more, resulting in the cost rise of titanium dioxide in each ton of paper;
2) Whiteness: The whiteness of titanium dioxide determines the appearance of molded paper;
3) Dispersibility: Dispersing agent is generally used in the papermaking process nowadays. So there is no big difference of dispersibility of titanium dioxide;
4) Weather resistance: Domestic rutile can meet the requirement of weather resistance by most types of paper. Only few paper types need rutile to provide very high weather resistance;
5) Retention: The filtered water is all reused in the Décor Paper/Laminate, otherwise, they use retention aids. Generally, the recovery of titanium dioxide is above 99%. The reason why this indicator is kept is that all international large titanium companies provide retention aid formula and application method when merchandising titanium dioxide for papermaking, so as to improve their service quality and enhance the product competitiveness.
Influence Factors for Quality of Decorative Base Paper:
Absorbability, strength property, whiteness and covering power, smoothness and evenness