The Effect of Infra-Red Radiation on the Curing Rate of an Alkylketene Dimer Sizing Agent

The contents of this thesis examine the principles behind and the effects of the application of infra-red radiation on a sheet sized with an alkylketene dimer. Handsheets were formed by the Noble and Wood procedure from bleached softwood kraft pulp beaten to a Canadian standard freeness of 390. They were sized with the dimer to a 0.2% concentration on the weight of the oven dry fiber combined with a cationic retention agent to a 0.05% concentration. It was found that infra-red radiation improved the sizing effects of the dimer