CONTENTS

Contaminants present in paper recycling mills can degrade product properties and can also lead to substantial downtime. Of these, adhesive material such as hot melts and pressure sensitive adhesives are especially troublesome. These are known as “stickies ” and their handling and removal requires process equipment such as screens and cleaners as well as chemical addi tives. In the preceding phase of the project we demonstrated that firing an underwater spark in a tank of stock reduces the tack of the stickies and reduces their impact. The present phase was to demonstrate the technology in full-scale trials, address any issues that might arise, and commer cialize the process. Trials were run at the Appleton papers mill in West Carrollton, OH, the Graphics Packa