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The average fiber length of most natural papermaking pulps ranges 0.5-6 mm. Within the complete range are:
- Wood pulps (softwoods and hardwoods), which effectively set the standard by which other fibers are judged. Eg: reinforcement pulps.
- Very long fibered nonwoods. Eg: Cotton fiber, hemp, ramie. They must be shortened before use - see hemp.
- Long fibered nonwoods. Eg: abaca, cotton linters, kenaf (bast). They are suitable for specialty grades requiring long fibers.
- Short fibered nonwoods. Eg: at the high end bamboo; then bagasse, esparto, wheat straw, reed, whole kenaf and, at the low end, rice straw. They require some reinforcement pulp (jump above).
- Core fraction of nonwoods, which are about 0.3-0.7 mm. Eg: core of bagasse and kenaf. They give a weak pulp with low freeness. |
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