New Archroma Advanced Whitening Concept Provides Papermakers With Truer Whites And Customizable Formulations

Five years in development, this new, patent-pending concept – called ADVANCED WHITENING – allows users to optimize both OBA and shading components when producing their printing, writing and office papers.

The new concept features a two-component package that combines Archroma’s Cartawhite XL liq – a surface shading solution – with its Leucophor® optical brightening agents. By allowing the separate dosing of these two components, ADVANCED WHITENING provides papermakers with the means to reduce their whiteness costs across all grades.

Archroma had already raised the bar a few years earlier when it developed its innovative Leucophor XL whitening system. This range allowed papermakers to break through their whiteness ceiling to reach previously unattainable levels. The Leucophor XL range improved whiteness build-up without destroying brightness for coated and uncoated papers and board.

Now, notes Archroma, its new ADVANCED WHITENING process retains these benefits while providing even more advantages, including:

• Good compatibility with size-press and coating systems;
• Reduced two-sidedness compared with 100% pigment shading systems;
• Comparable lightfastness to conventional whiteness solutions; and
• REACH-compliance.

“The new concept can save costs across all grades while retaining the advantages of the original whitening approach, not to mention the reduced OBA dosage which means less chemicals in the process and a reduced environmental footprint,” says Andrew Jackson, Global Head Product Management OBA for Archroma. “We’re excited to bring ADVANCED WHITENING to the global market, and provide papermakers with levels of flexibility they have never seen before,” said Jackson.

Leucophor® is a trademark registered by Archroma in many countries.