Capabilities and Facilities
SAFI team has complete access to the service center of the Tissue Pack innovation lab which has state-of-the-art equipment and highly trained scientists to provide world-class service for your technical and testing needs. Our group performs different analyses for granting high-quality results, below are some examples of the different tests and equipment used for achieving our goals.
Paper Testing
- Basis weight, caliper, bulk, surface smoothness, brightness, opacity, color, and air permeability
- Tensile strength (dry and wet), stretchability, and peel adhesion
- Water absorption capacity and absorption rate
- Compressibility and stiffness/flexibility
- Friction and rub resistance
The Tissue Pack Innovation Lab has a TAPPI conditioned room with standard and advanced test equipment for performing the analysis.

- Pulmac Zero-span and Short-span Tensile Tester
- Study of fiber strength, length, and degree of bonding
- Tissue Softness Analyzer (TSA) by Emtec Electronic
- Multifunctional measuring instrument to assess the softness, elasticity, and compressibility of tissue and fabrics, as well as ball burst strength, thickness, and basis weight
- Fiber Quality Analyzer (FQA)
- Determination of fiber length, width, curl, kink, coarseness, fines content, shives content, and vessel content
Chemical Characterization
- Kappa number
- Viscosity of pulp
- Pulp carbohydrates
- Carboxylic acid group content
- Surface charge
- Metals analysis
- Ash content
- pH
Equipment for Furnish and Chemical Additive Optimization
- Laboratory pulp refiners (PFI Mill and Valley Beater) and disk refiners
- Freeness testers (Canadian Standard Freeness and Schopper-Riegler Freeness)
- British handsheet former and square handsheet former
- Automated dynamic sheet former (capability of doing multi-layered tissue sheets)
- Britt Jar for drainage and retention studies
- Positive Pulse Jar (PPJ) for flow effects studies such as associated with approach-flow shear, jet-wire speed difference, and hydrofoil action
- Chemtrac ECA2000 and Mutek PCD03 for colloidal dissolved substances and charge determination
- Brookfield viscometer equipped with a modified rotor with vertical probes to evaluate the strength of fiber flocs
Pilot Equipment for Process Optimization
- State-of-the-art creping device
- Pilot fourdrinier paper machine – a flexible machine to evaluate multiple furnishes, additives, and process conditions cost-effectively, capable of running low basis weight (~30 gsm) sheet
- State-of-the-art stock preparation – re-pulping, mixing, thickening, screening, cleaning, and refining equipment
- Sprout-Bauer Twin-Flo Stock Refiner – refining of stock at low consistency
- Fiber recycling
- Wet-end chemical additives system