Pulp molded tableware is made from pulp as the main raw material. According to the performance requirements of the product, add an appropriate amount of disposable paper quick cutlery with various additives. These products have high technical content and the production process is difficult. Due to the needs of the Chinese catering market, tableware must have a smooth, smooth appearance, and have rigidity, toughness, heat resistance, heat insulation, water resistance and oil resistance, pressure resistance, etc. Both have higher requirements. At the same time, according to the requirements of the Chinese Food Sanitation Law and relevant laws and regulations, products must meet standards in terms of hygiene and physical and chemical properties. Therefore, the appearance of disposable tableware looks very simple, but this is a high-tech product.
Molded tableware products not only have good performance, but their product characteristics are equivalent to or even better than foamed plastic tableware. At the same time, it has a high value of recycling and recycling. If it is scattered in nature or is dumped or landfilled, it also has good natural degradation performance.
The pulp molded tableware is mainly made of vegetable fiber pulp paper board, such as wood pulp, reed pulp, bagasse pulp, bamboo pulp and the like. Among them, the wood pulp fiber is long, the impurities are small, the strength is good, and the stability, rigidity, toughness and whiteness of the product are better. Reed pulp, bagasse pulp and bamboo pulp are also good raw materials for the production of pulp molded tableware.
The additive is the raw and auxiliary material necessary for the production of pulp molding fast tableware. In order to ensure the use performance of pulp molding fast tableware, the standard requirement of disposable degradable tableware is achieved, and the pulp molding type fast tableware is added in a certain amount in the production process. Chemical products such as water repellent, oil repellent, curing agent, dry strength agent and wet strength agent are used as additives. Therefore, the pulp molded quick tableware is not a simple paper product, but an industrial product in which pulp is used as a main raw material and a plurality of additives are added.
According to the requirements of national food hygiene regulations, the above-mentioned raw materials must be allowed to be used or authorized by the authorized department for safe and non-toxic identification. Therefore, pulp molded tableware not only has better performance, but also has higher recycling value, which is conducive to saving resources and environmental protection.
Production process of pulp molded tableware
Pulp molded tableware production is divided into five stages :
1) Pulping: the raw pulp paperboard is soaked and placed in a hydraulic pulper to be disintegrated, processed into a pure slurry by screening, sand removal, refining, etc., and then pumped into the matching tank by a slurry pump. According to the need, add appropriate amount of auxiliary agent, water, etc. to the mixing tank in a certain order, stir evenly, mix the mixed slurry used in the product, and then enter the pulp supply barrel to carry out the molding machine, vacuum dehydration and molding.
2) Molding: Molding is a key process in the production line of pulp molded tableware. This process plays a decisive role in the quality of the tableware, production energy consumption, production efficiency and the like. There are two main methods for forming pulp molded tableware, namely, in-mold grouting extrusion and out-of-mold vacuum adsorption molding. The principle is to filter the pulp through the net mold to filter the water and leave the fiber on the mold. A wet embryo in a semi-wet state is formed. In order to have higher quality in the molding of tableware, it is not only necessary to select high-quality puree and reasonable molding method, but also the design of the molding machine must ensure the continuity of the slurry and avoid the phenomenon of slurrying and running. At the same time, the design and processing of the mold must have good water filtration and uniform dehydration.
3) Molding and drying: In this process, the drying method of pulp molded tableware is divided into two types according to the way of molding. That is, the vacuum adsorption molding outside the mold is mostly heated by convection drying and forming transfer in the mold. Drying; in-mold grouting extrusion is mostly carried out by direct heating and drying in a mold.
The common method of convection drying in the drying tunnel is to use hot air as the drying medium. The heating source can be fuel oil, coal, gas, etc. The drying equipment used has a drying box, a tunnel dryer, a chain dryer, etc. It is the three stages of heating, high temperature dehydration and cooling. Steam is used for heating and drying during molding. Compared with electric heating, it can save 70% of energy, meet the hygiene requirements of food packaging, and improve resource utilization. The pass rate is as high as 99%.
In-mold grouting extrusion is a process in which a semi-wet wet embryo is dehydrated in a cold pressing stage, and then the product is directly subjected to hot pressing drying in a press mold. The density, stiffness and strength of the products dried by the word method are better than the convection drying method of the drying tunnel.
4) Trimming and Sterilization: In order to eliminate the web marks left during the molding of the paper mold, the product that needs to be removed from the shaping machine will be moved into the trimming machine, where the excess edges are cut. In order to ensure the clean and beautiful tableware, stable size and shape, and smooth inner and outer surfaces, it is necessary to strictly control the water content of the paper-cutting tableware, which is generally controlled at 25%~30%. However, before the shaping, the water content of the paper tableware is difficult to control, and it is difficult to achieve the shaping requirements. Therefore, it is necessary to use a spray iron shaping mold, and the tableware is spray-wet during work, and the shaping process is completed by heating and pressing the mold. The shaped tableware is UV-sterilized to ensure that the production meets hygienic requirements.
5）Packaging: The packaging and storage of the final product should ensure that the tableware is clean and hygienic during the entire packaging process and whether the packaging quantity is correct.
The pulp molding industry is currently an emerging industry that is developing against "ban plastics" worldwide. With the improvement of environmental laws and regulations in various countries, people's awareness of environmental protection and human environmental protection continues to increase, and more and more technical personnel have participated in pulp molding. Will promote the rapid development of pulp molding.
The future prospects of the pulp molding industry
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