Specialty Minerals Inc. (SMI) has applied its vast alkaline papermaking experience to bleached paperboard and coated paperboard manufacture. Our precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) filling and coating pigments allow paperboard manufacturers to realize economic, quality and productivity benefits when they convert to alkaline papermaking. Bleached board mills that convert their wet-end to alkaline pH eliminate operational restrictions on increased coating carbonate levels. Our PCC products have been used to fill or coat a variety of containerboards like frozen foods, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, advertising, milk and juice containers, and bakery products.
SMI’s PCC fillers actually increase bulk compared to other fillers allowing boxboard mills to save money by replacing higher levels of more expensive fiber without sacrificing quality or strength. This increased bulk is the unique difference that lets bleached board mills realize economic advantages from alkaline conversion. Our PCCs are available as structured scalenohedral, clustered prismatic or aragonitic crystals that provide a host of benefits for bleached paperboard manufacturers:
- Maintain bulk
- Reduce manufacturing costs
- Increase brightness
- Improve smoothness
- Maintain stiffness
- Eliminate acid wet-end runnability problems
Increased levels of coating grade PCC in the base coat and the top coat are extremely economical and offer advantages over other coating systems including:
- Increased brightness
- Increased surface and print gloss
- Improved smoothness
- Enhanced print uniformity
- Improved glueability
- Improved or controlled porosity
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