Strength, wet

It is usual to express wet strength as a percentage of dry strength—usually tensile but not always 15% is considered to be a minimum to qualify, although 20—40% is more common, and some 

Wet strength agents need to be dispersible in water, reactive and possess an affinity for the fibre so that they can be retained during sheet formation. This is usually achieved by the introduction of charged, often cationic, groups. 

Heterocross-linking to cellulose is also theoretically possible but this has not been established. 

HOOC(CHj )4C—NCHjCHjNHCHjCHj N—C(CH, )4COOH Water soluble polyamide 

In addition to these resins, polyethyleneimines and dialdehyde starches are also used to a lesser degree. 

---

Used industrially to cross-link hydroxylic polymers, polyethyleneimine. Possesses some carcinogenic properties. Polyethyleneimine is a hygroscopic liquid used in paper manufacture to confer wet strength and in textiles, alkylated derivatives also form useful polymers. 

Polyamides from diamines and dibasic acids. The polyamides formed from abphatic diamines (ethylene- to decamethylene-diamine) and abphatic dibasic acids (oxabc to sebacic acid) possess the unusual property of forming strong fibres. By suitable treatment, the fibres may be obtained quite elastic and tough, and retain a high wet strength. These prpperties render them important from the commercial point of view polyamides of this type are cabed nylons The Nylon of commerce (a 66 Nylon, named after number of carbon atoms in the two components) is prepared by heating adipic acid and hexamethylenediamine in an autoclave ... 

Wet-laid nonwovens Wetox process Wet-strength additives... 

Reaction with Chlorine. Polyacrylamide reacts with chlorine under acid conditions to form reasonably stable A/-chloroamides. The polymers are water soluble and can provide good wet strength and wet web strength in paper (60). 

Urea—formaldehyde resins are also used as mol ding compounds and as wet strength additives for paper products. Melamine—formaldehyde resins find use in decorative laminates, thermoset surface coatings, and mol ding compounds such as dinnerware. 

The most commonly used reinforcement for high pressure decorative and industrial laminates is paper (qv). The strong substrate layers, or filler, are kraft paper. Kraft is a brown paper made from a sulfate pulp process (8). It consists of both short cellulose fibers from hardwoods and long fibers from conifers. The long fibers impart most of the wet strength required for resin saturation processes. 

Wet Strength in Paper and Paperboard, TAPPl Monograph Series No. 29, Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry, Adanta, Ga., 1965. 

Nonwood fibers are used in relatively small volumes. Examples of nonwood pulps and products include cotton Enters for writing paper and filters, bagasse for cormgated media, esparto for filter paper, or Manila hemp for tea bags. Synthetic pulps which are based on such materials as glass (qv) and polyolefins also are used (see Olefin polymers). These pulps are relatively expensive and usually are used in blends with wood pulps where they contribute a property such as tear resistance, stiffness, or wet strength which is needed to meet a specific product requirement. 

Analysis of certain papers requires special treatment before they can be disintegrated properly. Papers containing synthetics, tars, asphalt, mbber, viscose, or wet-strength resins must be analyzed individually (see TAPPI T401) (20). Dyes or colors must be removed from highly colored papers before examination. The method of dye removal depends on the type of dye. 

Combinations of anionic and cationic resins are used. Some of the eady systems involved the use of a cationic wet-strength resin with an anionic dry-strength additive to provide both increased wet and dry strength (63). Combinations of anionic and cationic dry-strength additives also are used to provide strength effects which cannot be achieved by using either polymer alone (64). The ratio of the two polymers must be optimized to achieve maximum performance (see Acrylamide polymers). 

---