“L&W Fiber Tester is a necessary tool for characterizing fibers in our research.” This is how Berit Leinsvang, responsible for L&W Fiber Tester Plus at PFI, describes the analyzer. PFI, Paper and Fibre Research Institute, is a centre of expertise for fibre, pulp and paper, wood fibre composites and sustainable woodbased biofuel in Trondheim, Norway. “The instrument is used daily in our research and we are very pleased with the investment”, Berit adds.
L&W Fiber Tester has been popular since the release in 2006 and have sold more than 175 units in total. Since the release of L&W Fiber Tester Plus in 2014, several different types of customers have chosen to invest in the equipment. Especially popular has it been among early adapters like research institutes and universities, in total 25 units have been sold during the two years it has been on the market. L&W Fiber Tester Plus is an upgraded version of L&W Fiber Tester. The upgrade includes a higher resolution camera that enables analysis of much smaller particles than in previous versions. The imaging system can detect macro fibrils on the fiber surface and also characterize fines into two different classes. The signals open doors for research making it possible to more deeply understand the components and characteristics of pulp.
This is one of the things that appealed to Stora Enso when they recently installed their L&W Fiber Tester Plus in their research centre in Karlstad, Sweden. Anders Moberg, Senior Specialist Renewable Packaging R&D Innovation at Stora Enso, states that they are very interested to see what the new capabilities of L&W Fiber Tester Plus, especially classifications of fines and fibrillation measurements, can give.
Graz University of Technology in Austria with numerous competence centres, the Christian-Doppler laboratories, special research fields and large EU projects also use L&W Fiber Tester Plus. They use it mainly for research projects but also for analyzing pulp on commission from the pulp and paper mills in the area. It is used daily and is a very popular tool among the researchers. It is used so frequently that one must book it in advance. “We were surprised that almost all the mills wants to analyze their pulp in this new equipment even though they know that there will be differences in fiber properties between the old and the new equipment.” says Melanie Mayr Dipl.-Ing., BSc, Project Assistance at the Institute of Paper-, Pulp and Fibre Technology. The plan is now to phase out the older equipment and only use L&W Fiber Tester Plus.
Now L&W Fiber Tester Plus is available with new measurement- L&W Crill that gives a new dimension of analyzing fiber properties. L&W Crill is an optional module to L&W Fiber Tester Plus. It uses a non-image method based on that small particles absorb and scatter light, which makes it possible to detect very small particles in a pulp suspension. L&W Fiber Tester Plus can now provide all information needed to understand pulp composition, including fiber length, fiber width, shape factor, fines content, fibril index and crill by analysing only one sample.