Manufacturing Facial Tissues
Facial tissues are developed and produced as an alternative for cloth handkerchiefs. These tissue paper products get the name from being soft, absorbent and disposable papers that are suitable for use on the face.
The First Introduction and Development
Even though the Japanese started using their version of facial tissues in the 17th century, Kimberly-Clark was the first company to introduce facial tissue to the market in 1924. Early advertisements introduced the tissue as a material to remove makeup, however, the majority of the people used facial tissues to wipe their nose. In the following years, these disposable tissue papers were presented in different colors, scents, prints, sizes, and qualities.
The Manufacturing Process
Because of their distinctive features, facial tissues must be made from the lowest basis weights tissue paper and most of the times the surface is smoothened by light calendaring. Kimberly-Clark’s recipe for facial tissues starts with mixing the pulp and water to form a slurry of fibers which is called the stock. Once the stock is ready, it is thinned by adding some more water.
The cellulose fibers are separated in refiners and formed into a sheet that consists of 95% fiber and only 5% water. A felt belt carries the sheet to the drying section in which the sheet will be pressed onto the steam-heated drying cylinder. After this step, the sheet is wound into larger rolls.
In the next step, these large rolls are transferred to a rewinder. The rewinder plies two or three sheets of wadding together before being further processed by calendar rollers for additional softness and smoothness. After the cutting and re-wounding, the rolls are tested and then transferred to storage, ready for the converting step.
Demand for Facial Tissues
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there is an increase in awareness about hygiene, which has, in turn, increased the demand for more disposable paper products such as facial tissues as opposed to reusable cloth napkins to curb the spread of viral infection. The global market is valued at 12580 million USD in 2020 and is expected to reach 16160 million USD by the end of 2026, growing at a CAGR of 3.6% during 2021-2026.