subject: Paper and Its Filaments [print this page] Paper is a kind of material that is produced by compressing different kinds of filaments together. Filaments are fibers that are elongated pieces, e.g. thread. They can be used to make ropes, string, felt or paper. There are man-made filaments but there are also natural filaments. Both of which can be used to make paper. Among the natural filaments are plants, animals and wood filaments.
The plant fibers can be divided into wood and vegetable fibers. The latter comprises of cellulose and often includes jute, flax, ramie, sisal, hemp and cotton. Plant fibers are usually used for paper and cloth. On the other hand, the so-called dietary fiber is used for human consumption. The other type of plant fiber is the wood fiber. The difference to plant fiber is that it is derived from trees. They could come in different forms such as thermomechanical pulp, groundwood or sulfite pulps.
Animal fibers on the other hand comprise of other elements. These elements include certain proteins. Examples are spider silk, catgut wool, mohair and angora, mink, fox, rabbit, beaver and so on. While mineral fibers usually consist of asbestos. Asbestos is known to be the only kind which can be considered as a natural mineral fiber. There are also short mineral fibers. Examples for these are halloysite and wollastonite. Attapulgite is also one of the famous short mineral fibers.
The man-made fibers are probably the most common among all types of filaments. They are usually derived from synthetic substances such as petrochemicals. However, in some cases, natural cellulose is used as the main ingredient for synthetic fibers. These include modal and rayon. Lyocell has also been manufactured using synthetic fibers.
A subcategory of the man-made fibers is the cellulose fibers. They could be described as recycled natural cellulose which is derived from a variety of sources. As the name indicates, bamboo fiber is derived from bamboo and seacell is extracted from seaweed.
We use paper every single day but many of us are not aware of how it is made. It is derived from compressed fibers such as plant fibers, animal fibers and man-made fibers. Among all those different types of filaments, the plant fibers might be the most popular as it is also used for cloth. Sometimes their only difference is the source. Just remember that dietary fiber is not meant to be used for paper but rather for human consumption.
