The present invention relates to a method for removing a foreign material from the surface of an article comprising the following steps: i) providing an article having a surface covered at least partly with a foreign material; ii) contacting the article provided in step i) with a cleaning medium being an acid having a pKa in the range from −10 to 7 having a minimum concentration of 1 wt.-% and with a carrier medium having a density different from the density of the cleaning medium to obtain a mixture comprising the foreign material solved and/or dispersed in the cleaning medium, the carrier medium and the article free from the foreign material; iii) allowing the mixture obtained in step ii) to separate to obtain a heterophasic emulsion comprising at least a first phase comprising the carrier medium and the article free from the foreign material and a second phase comprising the cleaning medium and the foreign material solved and/or dispersed therein; iv) separating the phases obtained in step iii); and v) separating the article free from the foreign material from the carrier medium. Furthermore, the present invention relates to an installation for carrying out the inventive process.

The present invention aims to develop a technique for efficiently preparing deinked pulp from prints made with UV-curable inks. According to the processes for preparing deinked pulp of the present invention, high quality deinked pulp can be obtained by performing the steps of: disintegrating printed waste paper containing UV prints in water to give a waste paper slurry; and applying a mechanical process to the waste paper slurry using a rotary disintegrator.

The present invention is related to a deinking primer composition for deinking of a substrate, wherein said deinking primer composition comprises a binder component that has a polymeric backbone with pendent hydroxy or carboxy groups that have been esterified or acetalised or ketalised to such an extent that the binder component has an acid value of 0-50 mg KOH/g or a hydroxyl value of 0-600 mg KOH/g, preferably 0-400 mg KOH/g, so that a primer layer prepared from said deinking primer composition is dissolvable in an alkaline aqueous medium.

A process including providing a paper substrate; disposing a water soluble precoat composition onto all or a portion of the paper substrate to provide a treated paper; applying an image onto the treated paper using a toner or an aqueous ink to provide an imaged paper; wherein the water soluble precoat composition forms a temporary barrier between the toner or aqueous ink and the paper substrate; and wherein, during a paper pulping process, the water soluble precoat composition dissolves thereby releasing the toner or aqueous ink from the paper substrate.

A method of pulping wastepaper includes providing a pulping vessel with a rotor and at least one flow sensor adapted to measure slurry flow within the pulping vessel. The pulping vessel is charged with wastepaper and water to form a slurry, the amounts of wastepaper and water being present such that the slurry has consistency in the range of from 10% to 30%. The wastepaper charge in the pulping vessel is pulped at a pre-selected power level while monitoring poloidal slurry flow in the pulping vessel; and from time-to-time, water may be added to the pulping vessel when the poloidal flow falls below a predetermined lower threshold flow value in order to reduce viscosity and thereby restore poloidal flow within the pulping vessel. Doppler velocimetry is a preferred method of monitoring pulp flow. In a particularly preferred construction the rotor has a variable power drive. The inventive method is especially useful for making high quality, high brightness furnishes from wastepaper which varies from batch to batch.

In vertical concentrating washing machines, processed raw material is transported upward but ends up containing shower water. That is, the moisture content ends up increasing during the transport process even though the material has been dewatered. A transport blade (8) has a plate-like shape in plan view and includes a fan-shaped portion (10) that extends rearward in the rotational direction, developing into a fan shape, and the transport blade is attached such that a plate surface thereof has a slanted orientation with respect to the axis direction of a rotary shaft (6), with a forward side, in the rotational direction, of the plate surface being disposed lower than a rearward side thereof. A plurality of the transport blades (8) is attached so as to delineate a helix along the circumferential direction of the rotary shaft (6) while leaving a communicating portion that is straight in the vertical direction. Shower water falls from gaps (S) between the transport blade (8). The transport blades (8) have a fan shape that widens toward the inner wall side of the rotary drum (5). A surface area on which the material rests stably and a sufficient gap (S) are secured in a well-balanced fashion.

The present invention aims to provide a technique for easily and rapidly sorting printed materials suitable as raw materials of recycled paper.

Printed materials that are hard to recycle as waste paper can be identified by irradiating the surface of the printed materials with light and measuring the reflected light. Specifically, good quality recycled paper can be made efficiently from printed materials by removing printed materials having an absorption band around 1720 cm.sup.−1, around 1260 cm.sup.−1, around 1160 cm.sup.−1, or around 700 cm.sup.−1 from waste paper raw materials when the printed materials are irradiated with light on their surface.

A plate segment includes a substrate having a front side and a back side, wherein the back side is configured to be mounted to a support disc of a disperser; rows of teeth protruding from the front side of the substrate, wherein each of the rows are arranged along an arc extending from one side of the plate segment to an opposite side of the plate segment. In at least one of the rows of teeth, adjacent teeth are joined by a bridge spanning a gap between the adjacent teeth. The bridge is elevated above the front side of the substrate such that the bridge is separated from the front side by an open space in the gap.

Dispersers and disperser plate segments configured to be mounted in dispersers, wherein the disperser plate segments comprise rows of teeth and wherein bridges span gaps between adjacent teeth in at least one of the rows of teeth, wherein the bridges are separated from a substrate of the front face by an open space in the gap. In other exemplary embodiments, a buttress extends from at least one face of the tooth to support the tooth.

The invention related to an apparatus for recycling of lignocellulosic fibres from a fibreboard comprising compressed lignocellulosic fibres bonded together by a binding agent. The apparatus comprises a transport device arranged within a closed housing, wherein the housing is arranged for steaming pieces of the fibreboard at super-atmospheric pressure to decompress and release the lignocellulosic fibres by hydrating them, as well as hydrolysing the binding agent, and the transport device is arranged for transporting the fibreboard pieces, upon being steamed, from an inlet of the housing, at which the fibreboard pieces are fed to the housing, to an outlet of the housing, at which steamed portions comprising released lignocellulosic fibres exit the housing. Further, the apparatus comprises a steam generator in communication with the housing, whereby the fibreboard pieces may be steamed at super-atmospheric pressure in the housing to provide the steamed portions comprising released lignocellulosic fibres, an inlet pressure lock configured to receive the fibreboard pieces at atmospheric pressure and to deliver them to the housing, via the inlet, at super-atmospheric pressure, and an outlet pressure lock configured to receive steamed portions comprising released lignocellulosic fibres via the outlet and ejecting recycled lignocellulosic fibres during a sudden expansion of super-atmospheric pressure.