Bar forces in pulp refiners

Abstract

Refiners develop pulp properties by applying forces on fibres during bar crossings. The size of these forces is critical in developing fibre properties while avoiding fibre shortening. This study has shown that bar force calculated from Specific Edge load (SEL) gives the same result as vector-based derivations of average bar force. Predicted forces agree reasonably well with ones measured by a novel piezo-electric sensor in refiner bars and forces estimated from measurements of fibre shortening.