Definition of Paper According to Oxford Dictionary

Aya Daouk

Mech 421

Hw 00

1.  The definition of paper according to Oxford dictionary, is material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on, or as wrapping material.  There is no technical name or vendor’s identifying part number. The word paper is derived from Latin “papyrus” which is a thick paper-like material found in papyrus plants.

1. Paper has diverse properties depending on the intention of use. It could be used :

• For representing value ex: money, cheque.. 
• For storing information ex: notebook…
• For communication ex: letter…
• For packaging ex: envelopes, boxes..
• For cleaning ex: toilet paper…

According to IDAL, the future of paper industry in the Middle East and Africa is very promising. It is expected that by 2020, the region will require 28 million tons of paper to fulfill its market needs. 

Paper is made around the world and even goes back to the second century in China. According to Statista in 2016, the global production of paper and cardboard stood at approximately 411 million metric tons. More than half of that production was attributable to packaging paper, while almost one third was attributable to graphic paper.

The world's three largest paper producing countries are China, the United States, and Japan. These three countries account for more than half of the world’s total paper production, while the leading paper importing and exporting countries are Germany and the United States. The world's top country in both, imports and exports, was Germany in 2015, with some 11.3 million and 13.3 million metric tons, respectively.

1. There are different types of paper in terms of thickness, size, composition… Each type is made up of different materials and has its own manufacturing process. In this assignment, the type of paper discussed will be the A4 standard printing paper as shown in the picture above. The materials used to make paper include wood pulp, non-wood pulp, recycled paper, and non-fibrous materials.

1. According to Wikipedia and Paperone, bark that can’t be used for papermaking is stripped from the log and used for energy, the stripped logs then are chipped into small pieces and recovered for further processing. To make pulp from the wood, a chemical pulping process separates lignin from cellulose fibers.

There are three main chemical pulping processes: sulfite process, kraft process (which is commonly used because it produces heat that can be used to run a generator), and soda pulping to pulp straws and hardwoods with high silicate content.