The 24th Pulp and Paper Reliability and Maintenance Conference will be held March 12-15, 2012 in Raleigh, NC. The goal of this conference is to continue to be the marketplace for Reliability and Maintenance solutions for the pulp and paper industry. And it promises to provide an arsenal of improvement solutions to help your plant improve financial performance and survive long term.

Since its inception in 1986, the Pulp and Paper Reliability and Maintenance Conference has developed a devoted following of Reliability and Maintenance professionals representing Operations, Maintenance, Stores and Engineering. Over 400 speakers have shared their knowledge and experiences along with over 3,000 conference delegates.

Learn more about this conference and register to attend at the TAPPI conference page.

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What's your safety culture like?

Ohio TAPPI presents a seminar on creating a culture of safety in the paper industry.

Most people in the industry understand what is safe to do and what is not. The Ohio TAPPI program won't preach to the choir about good EH&S practices. The program's focus will be on what it takes to make safety an integral part of the culture in a company.

Attendees may hear a little bit of the ‘nuts and bolts' of safety at the upcoming meeting. However, the goal is not another seminar with pictures of horrific accidents scaring everyone into following safety rules and regulations. Instead, the seminar provides a program covering different perspectives on creating a culture of safety in operations within the Ohio TAPPI local section. The perspectives will be presented by employees, management, consultants, and regulators we have lined up to speak and take questions.

The seminar will be held December 2, 2011 at the Roberts Centre in Wilmington, OH. It's located just off 71 at the exit for route 68. As always, seating is limited, so pre-registration guarantees you a spot. Meeting fees are $25 for TAPPI members who pre-register, and $40 for members at the door. The cost for non-members is a flat $50. Students are free. Please pre-register with our treasurer, Glen Miller, who can be reached at glen.miller@mohawkpaper.com.

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Collaborative R&D Initiatives Will Help Grow Tomorrow's Technologies

The paper & pulp industry needs innovations in manufacturing processes and products to remain competitive. However, as we all know the ongoing decline in R&D investment is creating a current and future lack of capacity for innovation and is raising serious concerns about where tomorrow's technologies will come from.

One of the best methods for addressing this reduction in technology investment is to bring the industry together for the co-development of new technologies.

The central focus of a new initiative, Agenda 2020, is to promote and encourage collaborative R&D as a public/private partnership.

Join an upcoming webinar on December 7 to learn more about the Agenda 2020 initiative and the R&D funding opportunities that are available for your organization.

Click here to learn more about the webinar speakers.

To reserve your space at this seminar, go to our registration page.

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Rethink Trees in Less Than Four Minutes

Having trouble grasping nanotechnology as it applies to the paper industry? Or, do you need help in getting coworkers or customers to understand the nature of trees that make them uniquely suitable for renewable nanotechnology? Do you have about four minutes?

Developed by a team of industry volunteers to raise awareness of the potential of trees using nanotechnology, a four-minute video was developed to highlight the many current uses of tree fiber in countless products, as well as the potential for new products and new uses realized through nanotechnology. This video is available for viewing and downloading.

Thanks to the following companies for their contributions which made this video possible: Alabama Center for Paper and Bioresources Engineering, ArborGen, Fibria, Georgia-Pacific, Nalco, Verso, Kemira, NewPage, MWV, Sappi, International Paper, IPST @ Georgia Tech, U.S. Forest Service.

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A panel of industry representatives, meeting in Macon, Ga., on  Oct. 28, urged the Georgia Study Commission on Science and Technology to recognize the strategic value of Georgia's unique resources and the industries that develop their economic potential, and to create a welcoming environment for venture capital investments and job creation.

The panelists included representatives of firms engaged in forest products, mining and biomass technology. Speaking at one of a series of Commission field hearings on developing a plan to enhance science and technology in Georgia, the Traditional Industries in Technology Growth panel called attention to the importance of maintaining and nurturing existing industries, on which rural communities depend, and in which technologies are developing innovative products to compete in world markets.

The panelists also stressed the need for a high-level forum to develop priorities for research and development and the encouragement of new business investment.

Further details on the panel's recommedations and the work of the commission are available on the TAPPI homepage.

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Scheduled to be released in 2012!

The Bleaching of Pulp
By Peter W. Hart and Alan W. Rudie

Previous editions of The Bleaching of Pulp have provided comprehensive information on the technology used to bleach wood pulps. The 5th edition will continue this tradition as the premiere industry text on bleaching technologies but will be more focused on the modern industrial processes with less emphasis on fundamental science.

New or more comprehensive sections are included on elemental chlorine free bleaching, enzymes, acid treatments for hexeneuronic acids, control of mineral scale and multi-stage modeling as used to optimize bleaching among multiple stages.

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