Paper Machines - How a Tree Trunk Becomes a Roll of Toilet Paper | Free Documentary Shorts

Summary

This video takes viewers on a fascinating journey from forest to bathroom, revealing how toilet paper is made. It begins with powerful harvesters felling and processing low-quality trees, which are then chipped, cleaned, and turned into pulp. Both fresh wood and recycled paper go through complex chemical and mechanical treatments to extract fibers, which are formed into continuous paper webs by a massive, high-speed paper machine. Jumbo rolls are unwound, layered, embossed, printed, and precisely wound into individual toilet rolls. The video highlights advanced technology, meticulous quality control, and Germany's recycling efforts, showing how a simple everyday product involves precision engineering and sustainable practices.

Takeaways

• 🌲 The process of making toilet paper starts with harvesting trees, using a harvester that fells, de-limbs, and cuts logs efficiently.
• 🪵 Only 'bad' wood (crooked or unsuitable for furniture) is selected for paper production, while good wood is saved for other uses.
• 🔨 Wood is debarked mechanically by rotating drums, washed to remove sand and stones, and scanned for metal to prevent damage to machinery.
• 💥 Large wood chippers with sharp blades reduce logs into small wood chips, which are then transported to storage piles via giant conveyor belts.
• 🧪 Wood chips are chemically processed in a decomposer to break them down into fine fibers for paper production.
• ♻️ Waste paper is a major raw material in Germany, making up 70% of the paper industry, and can be recycled up to seven times.
• 🏭 Waste paper is sorted using sieves, near-infrared sensors, and manual inspection to remove cardboard, plastic, and other impurities before pulping.
• 🧼 Pulp is washed and cleaned to remove dirt, sand, and ink, resulting in white fibers ready for paper production.
• -
• 📝 The paper machine (120 meters long) forms, presses, dries, and irons the paper web, producing a jumbo reel of paper weighing 40 tons in just 50 minutes.
• -
• 🧻 Toilet paper is produced by unwinding jumbo reels, layering them (commonly three-ply), adding embossing, motifs, and adhesive, then cutting into standard rolls with cardboard cores.
• -
• ⚡ The entire production process combines forestry, mechanical engineering, chemical processing, and high-speed automation to produce millions of toilet rolls efficiently.
• -
• 🌍 Recycling and careful material selection help reduce environmental impact, making paper production more sustainable.

Q & A

What is the primary function of a harvester in the paper production process?

The harvester is a timber harvesting machine that fells trees, de-lims them, and saws up the trunks, selecting only crooked or damaged trees to be used for paper production.

How does the giant wood chipper contribute to paper production?

The wood chipper reduces large tree trunks into small wood chips, which are then transported via conveyor belts to stockpiles. These chips are later processed into pulp for paper.

Why is it important to remove metal from the logs before chipping?

Metal such as nails, screws, or shrapnel can damage the knives in the chippers and other parts of the plant, making metal removal essential for safe and efficient processing.

What is the difference between coniferous and deciduous wood in paper production?

Coniferous wood has long fibers and is mainly used for printing or writing paper, while deciduous wood has short fibers that make paper, especially toilet paper, smooth and soft.

How is wood pulp created from wood chips?

Wood chips are broken down into fibers using chemicals in large containers, dissolving the wood until only fibers remain. These fibers form the base material for paper.

What role does waste paper play in the German paper industry?

Waste paper, making up about 70% of raw materials, is collected and recycled multiple times to produce new paper, which is more environmentally friendly than using fresh wood.

How are contaminants like cardboard and plastic removed from recycled paper?

A sorting machine uses sieves for rough pre-sorting, then near-infrared sensors detect and remove plastic and cardboard with air blasts. Manual sorting removes remaining small contaminants.

What is the purpose of the paper machine, and how does it work?

The paper machine transforms watery fiber pulp into solid paper through four main steps: spraying, pressing, drying, and ironing. It runs at high speeds with complex controls to produce consistent paper.

How is toilet paper made from jumbo paper reels?

The jumbo reels are unwound and wound into smaller rolls using the toilet paper winder. Paper layers are embossed, glued, and perforated to create soft, multi-ply toilet paper with precise lengths.

What is micro embossing, and why is it important?

Micro embossing presses small dots into the paper to create volume and softness. It ensures the layers stick together and improves the comfort and quality of the toilet paper.

How long does the entire paper production process take from wood to jumbo reel?

From the initial processing of wood to producing a jumbo paper reel, the process takes about 50 minutes, with the final web of paper traveling through the machine at 100 kilometers per hour.

How much toilet paper does the average German use per year?

On average, each German uses about 250 kilograms of toilet paper per year, with a single small roll being used in just under eight days.