Tissue softness and optical properties such as brightness and color share similar characteristics. Many years ago, most considered the best tool for evaluating optical properties to be the human eye. Modern tools like the spectrophotometer today help us quantify what the human eye perceives. For tissue, the human hand has long been considered the best tool for determining tissue softness. The difficult reality is that any subjective evaluation creates uncertainty and uncertainty leads to variation. Variation is the enemy of consistency and quality.
Simply put, the Emtec Tissue Softness Analyzer (TSA) is a tool
that quantifies the otherwise subjective hand feel or “softness” evaluation of
tissue.
Many aspects of tissue production have long been considered
“art” rather than science. The subjective nature of hand feel is a perfect
example. Anyone can rank order tissue samples in order of perceived softness,
but can you get a group of people (especially papermakers) to agree? The Emtec
Tissue Softness Analyser (TSA) quantifies different components associated with
“hand feel” or softness perception into a single numerical value that can be
used as an indication of “tissue softness.”
Why is the TSA beneficial?
1.
The TSA is fast and easy to use. Anyone can learn to use the TSA
to determine a measurement value indicative of tissue softness. That measure is
the tissue softness index.
2.
With quantified measurements, process parameters such as crepe
or furnish can be optimized to improve softness.
3.
With a measurement tool, benchmarking becomes easier. The graph (below) illustrates benchmark results for several different retail
brands of bath tissue.
4.
With the TSA, customer feedback or feedback from “Hand Feel”
panels can be quantified, and from that feedback, product specifications are
improved.
With meaningful product specifications, I have historically seen
more stable production. Stability and consistency are hallmarks of higher
quality. If you want to improve the quality of your tissue products, try the
Emtec TSA or consider sending in samples of your current tissue.
