Fibre Morphology and Wood Cell Structure

In softwoods, the main cell type is the tracheid, which is often mistakenly referred to as a fibre. Tracheids constitute over 90% of the volume of most softwoods, and are the principal paper-making cells of softwoods. Their average length is usually between 2 and 4 mm, with a lengthrwidth ratio (aspect ratio) often in excess of 100 to 1, but there is a wide distribution of tracheid lengths, and it is possible for some to be as short as 1 mm and for others to be as long as 5 mm (Table 2.1). The lumen, or central cavity, is several times wider than the cell wall thickness. There is also a difference between spring wood (i.e. cells synthesised in the early part of the annual 

These are narrow short cells (usually less than 0.2 mm in length) which are often lost in screening of chemical pulps, but are usually found in mechanical pulps. In addition, there are also epithelial cells which, in the original wood, are found surrounding the spaces which make up the resin canals. These canals may be up to 0.3 mm in diameter, and contain large quantities of resin, the chemistry of which is discussed more fully later in this chapter. 

The outer secondary cell wall (SI) is comparable in thickness to the primary wall and consists of four to six lamellae which spiral in opposite directions around the longitudinal axis of the tracheid. The main bulk of the secondary wall is contained in the middle secondary cell wall (S2), and may be as little as 1 fim thick in early woods and up to 5 fim in summer wood. The microfibrils of this part of the wall spiral steeply about the axial direction at an angle of around 10 to 20°. The inner secondary wall (S3), sometimes also known as the tertiary wall, is not always well developed, and is of no great technological importance. 

---