The Tissue Dust Analysis System: A new device and methodology to quantify dusting and linting propensity in hygiene tissue papers

Abstract Linting and dusting are commonly used terms to describe the tendency of a tissue web to release unbound and loosely bound fibers or filler particles during the tissue-making process or in the finished tissue product. Lint/dust generation has an overall negative impact across tissue paper manufacturing and handling operations, causing safety hazards, machine runnability difficulties, and product quality issues. To date, there are no well-established industry standards to quantify dusting/linting propensities in finished tissue products, thus evaluating the effectiveness of dust/lint control programs is challenging yet intriguing. This research aims to fill this gap by developing a methodology to characterize dusting in tissue papers. We have developed a device prototype (named the Tissue Dust Collector) and a methodology that together have been named the Tissue Dust Analysis System (TDAS), which aims at quantifying the propensity for tissue-grade paper products to generate dust/lint in a controlled and reproducible manner. Two samples, corresponding to commercial products with a low and high linting propensity, were tested using the proposed device and methodology, and the released particles were quantified and characterized. The device and methodology provided reproducible results for simulated consumer handling and product manufacturing scenarios. By changing the instrument's motor frequency, the force of agitation changes, mimicking/simulating consumer (60 strokes per min, spm) and producer/manufacturing (180 spm) handling scenarios (though manufacturing processes are much faster in practice). Particle counts at each level for each product showed reproducible values differentiable at different agitation levels. Adopting the proposed Tissue Dust Analysis System may help to collect, characterize and understand the mechanisms behind dusting to alleviate this issue at its various sources through dust-control strategies.