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12 February 2019

New measuring method to evaluate the Hand Feel (HF) of Fiber Resources

The TSA – Tissue Softness Analyzer represents a nearly perfect simulation of the human hand and shows excellent results in measuring base tissue and finished tissue products (toilet paper, handkerchiefs, facials). In case of hand sheets made in the lab, the device also convinced in measuring the influence of pulp quality (short fibers), refining or softener. But it was limited until now to measure the influence of different compositions of long and short fibers to the softness of hand sheets, and thus, to predict the haptic quality of tissue products.73

The German company emtec Electronic, which developed the original TSA – Tissue Softness Analyzer, upgraded the device with a new sensor design and Marcel Prinz, now Doctoral student at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich, started his master thesis with several tests with the upgraded prototype of the TSA in 2017. He proved and optimized the new TSA measuring method for hand sheets, which enables the measurement of the influence of different fiber mixes (long and short fibers ratio) to the quality of the hand sheet. By the new sensor design and an improved measuring method it was possible to gain very accurate and reliable results with a good correlation to the expectations and the haptic tests. This available information allows a quality forecast for the actual base tissue and finished product, if a certain fiber mix is used.

The new TSA measuring method opens completely new possibilities in saving costs and resources in the production, and it leads to an efficiency increase in the process and product optimization. Especially pulp mills, research institutes and the R&D labs of tissue mills and chemical suppliers waited for such results. Since the last quarter of 2018, the full upgraded TSA version for such measurements, but also the upgrade of an existing standard TSA, is available.