GCSE Graphic Products Materials and Components Summer Examination 2011

Paper and Boards Paper and Boards are used extensively throughout the Graphics industry. On a daily basis you use paper and boards without realising it, cereal boxes, newspapers, juice cartons, school books etc. Each type of paper/board has been carefully created to achieve certain qualities, things that should be considered when choosing paper or boards are: cost, finish, strength, brightness (whiteness) and thickness. Paper and Boards are made from the vegetable fibers that are found in woods, which are extracted and crushed with 95% water to create a pulp. This pulp looks milky in colour, and is then refined and dried with both dryers and rollers to achieve a basic quality that paper makers need for board and paper.

Properties of Paper & Boards There are three main ways of achieving the different properties of paper and card: Coating the surface: adding china clay or chalk (sprayed onto the surface) gives a smoother finish. Sizing agents: improves the ability of the paper or card to accept inks by sealing the absorbency of the paper’s surface. Laminating: layers of thinner card are stuck together to create thicker boards. Weight and Thickness – Paper is sold by weight in grams per square (gsm) up to a value of 220 gsm, when it is called a board. Board is sold and measured for thickness in units called microns. There are 1000 microns in 1mm, a typical birthday card is around 300 microns thick.

Properties and uses of Paper and Card Virgin Paper Virgin Paper makes up 90% of all paper, and the remaining 10% has some recycled content. Compared with recycled paper, virgin paper tends to be stronger, easier to make, and whiter. Virgin paper is used more often with food containers as it reduces the contamination risk for the food products. Recycling Paper can also be made from materials such as corn, straw, cotton, and hemp, each will give the paper different properties. Including these materials are biodegradable and more sustainable for the environment.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Recycling Paper Kinder to the environment, 34% of trees cut down are for paper manufacturing. Harmful chemicals to the environment, such as bleach are sometimes used to achieve a white paper. Energy saving due to less raw materials being processed. Not as strong as virgin paper. Companies like to be seen as being ‘greener.’ More expensive to make than virgin paper

Properties and types of Paper and Card Corriflute or Corex This is a fluted polypropylene (plastic) board, which is a light, but strong weather resistant material that is excellent for use as exterior signage. It can be printed onto. A good example of Corex is the ‘For Sale’ signs of estate agents. Duplex White carton boards are mainly used for packaging, larger and more rigid multilayered display boards like duplex have a greater variety of uses. A good example would be the advertising boards that are seen in shops and cinemas . These can be coated with a ‘smart’ foil material with an image that reacts to light and changes. (Hologrammatic)

Properties of Paper and Boards TYPE Weight or Thickness Advantages Uses Relative cost (10=High) Newsprint 50gsm Cheap, Lightweight, Uncoated Newspapers 1 Layout Paper 60gsm Thin and Slightly Translucent Sketches and tracing 3 Tracing Paper 70gsm Transparant Tracing 4 Sugar Paper 90gsm Cheap, Uncoated, Variety of colours Cheap mounting of work 2 Inkjet/Photo Paper 150-230gsm Special high gloss, or matt coating with a quick dry surface. Photos/Presentations 9 Board (Card) 230-750 microns A more rigid surface that can be easily printed onto Model-Making 5 Mount board 230-1000 microns Thick coloured rigid board Model Making, High quality picture mounting Corrugated Card 3000-5000 microns Strong and Lightweight Packaging Protection

Cartonboard What is Carton Board? Nearly everything we buy is packaged in some form. If you look closely at the packaging on any two different products, you will see that they are often over packaged, and that the card is slightly different. If card is used for external packaging then it is likely to be a type of cartonboard. Cartonboard is mechanically strong, so it is good at protecting products, it can also be easily cut, creased, folded and glued, giving the designer scope to produce creative packaging. The surface is usually white and smooth to enable printing onto. In Europe about 7 million tonnes of cartonboard are produced annually, the majority of which is often turned into cartons for products such as food, drinks and cosmetics.

Cartonboard Carton board is often multilayered or laminated, with three or more ‘plies’. Cartonboard can be combined with other materials such as plastic to make it waterproof. There are four basic types of cartonboard: Solid Bleached board, solid Unbleached board, folding boxboard, and white lined chipboard. They can have chemicals added to improve a variety of properties such as moisture and grease barriers. Cartonboard can be treated or laminated, but this does make it harder to recycle. Coatings Aluminium foil for insulation or as a bacterial barrier for food products. An example of which would be a Capri-sun drinks container. Plastic for waterproofing, an example may include Innocent smoothie drinks cartons. Greaseproof paper, for use when baking. Wax coating for waterproofing, an example of which would be a takeaway coffee cup.

Practice A0 A sleeve for a CD is made from thin Board. (A) What are the main constituents of most papers and boards? (1mark) (i) Name four ways in which the quality of paper and thin board can be improved. (4 marks) (ii) Describe two of the ways by which the quality of the paper and board can be improved. (4 marks) (B) Explain with sketches, and noted the difference between ‘laminated’ material and an encapsulated document (4 marks) (i) Paper is usually measured in ‘gsm’. Explain this term. (1 mark) (ii) Board is usually measured in thickness. Explain this system. (2 marks) (C) Copy the diagram below to represent size A0 in the ‘A series’ of paper sizes. Show how A4 Size is formed and state how many pieces of A4 can be cut from one sheet of A0. (3Marks)