TAPPI Press Presents First Edition Hydrofoil Booklet
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TAPPI Press, publishing arm of the forest products industries’ longest-serving technical association, has announced the publication of the first-ever historical recounting of the development and testing of hydrofoils to replace table rolls on fourdrinier paper machines. The booklet is now available for purchase via TAPPI’s Bookstore.
Titled “Impact, Development, And Commercialization Overview of Dewatering Hydrofoils”, it explores the unpublished history of the technical and commercial impact dewatering hydrofoils had on synthetic forming fabrics in the papermaking industry. Co-authored by five retired Huyck Corporation employees, the booklet contains an insider’s view into the development and testing of the hydrofoil that replaced table rolls on fourdrinier paper machines.
“This game-changing technology allowed machine tenders and supervisors around the world to enhance their papermaking capabilities to make sheets with higher strength, better formation, and improved two-sidedness,” says co-author Benjamin Thorp. “It is a must read for anyone involved in papermaking wet end, as well as professors, students, paper historians and libraries holding historical documents. Much of the story in the book is unpublished information and found nowhere else. It is a recounting that paper historians and paper industry libraries, among others, will consider a must-have.”
The 1960s saw significant technical changes to the forming section including the development of synthetic forming fabrics which allowed paper machines to run under steady-state conditions for long periods. This made the industry more profitable, made machine jobs safer, and allowed grades, machines, and even mills to be optimized.
During the synthetic fabric development, Huyck Corporation, an innovator of technology adoption, commercialized dewatering hydrofoils which allowed fabrics to run better, and gave papermakers around the world a new tool with which they could adjust dewatering and turbulence to those conditions needed for each machine. This technology became one of the top disruptive changes to the papermaking forming process.
Published by TAPPI Press, copies are available now for purchase on the TAPPI website. The four co-authors, in addition to Thorp are, James D. Eames, Jim Ring, Thomas Rodencal, and David A. Szurley.
