SURFACE CHARACTERIZATION OF PRINTING PAPERS

Abstract

The work presented in this thesis has been carried out at the Swedish Pulp and Paper Research Institute (STFI), Stockholm, Sweden. Most of the experimental work was completed during my visit to Sweden from October 1984 to December 1985 and the writing of the thesis was completed during my second visit from March to June 1990. I express my sincere thanks and gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. J. Anthony Bristow, for his guidance, inspiration and encour-agement throughout the course of this work. In spite of his busy schedules, he provided me the freedom to work with him at any time to discuss my problems and results, quite often beyond the normal working hours of the Institute. He showed his complete involvement in this work. I am extremely thankful to Mr. Hilding Ekman and to Mr. Per-Ake Johansson with whom I worked in close cooperation during the experimental work and in the analysis of the results. Mr. Johansson provided guidance and help in the image analysis of the prints obtained in the partial coverage method, discussed in Chapter II, and of the microcontour ink stains, discussed in Chapter III. He has kindly written the Appendix A of this thesis describing the image analysis routines. I received guidance and help from Mr. Ekman during the work on surface characterization by the profilometry techniques, discussed in Chapter IV. Besides this academic help, Mr. Ekman also showed me much of the Swedish customs and cultural ways by inviting me to his home during most religious and social festivals. I express my humble appreciation to Dr. Petter Kolseth for his critical comments, suggestions and help during the writing of this thesis. I am indebted to my many friends at STFI, especially to Mr. Hans Bergenbiad, Ms Eva Ostlund, Ms Margareta Lind Kolseth and Ms Ann-Catrine Hagberg for their help in carrying out the experi-mental work and in the preparation of the figures in this thesis. I thank the persons of the computer group of STFI, especially Mr. Luigi Masironi and Mr. Leopold Solis-Pinto, for their help in the computational work. I am impressed by the high standard of research facilities at STFI and am grateful for the way in which they were made available to me. 4 I am grateful to the Svenska Institutet, Stockholm, for award-ing me a scholarship to finance my first visit to Sweden and to Ms Ingrid Fineman, Head of the Paper Technology Department, STFI, for arranging financial assistance to enable me to complete the writing work. Acknowledgements are due to the Government of India for bearing the cost of travel for my first visit to Sweden and to STFI for bearing the travel costs for my second visit to Sweden. I am extremely thankful to the personnel in the STFI lunchroom for kindly agreeing to prepare a daily vegetarian diet for me. I gratefully appreciate the help of Ms Inga-Lisa Stromberg in typing many drafts of the manuscript with concern to see that the work was completed within the short period of my stay in Sweden. Back home in India, I am grateful to my other supervisor, Dr. N. Jagannath Rao, for providing me with the encouragement and the will to complete the work. I am also thankful to my employer, the University of Roorkee, who granted me leave of absence from the University to work at STFI and permission to submit this thesis for the award of the Ph.D. degree. Last but not least I am indebted to all my friends and rela-tives in India for their encouragement so that I could maintain my hope during the period of more than four years which elapsed between my two visits to STFI.