Evaluation of cut quality of woodfree coated papers

Dusting and blanket pollution are of particular interest in offset printing. Papers must be free of dust and loose particles to drastically reduce the wash interval of the blankets. Those particles are mainly generated during converting operations, such as sheeting. Considering the end-customer point of view, the visual aspect of the cut appears to be very important. To study in detail the influence of the sheeting parameters and paper properties on cut quality, a new test method to quantify the cut quality of woodfree coated papers has been developed. In particular, this method takes into consideration the state of the coating layer near the cutting edges.