Translucent Paper and Envelopes
What is naturally translucent paper?
Naturally translucent paper, such as Glama
Natural®, is a super premium grade of translucent
printing paper. Naturally translucent printing paper is
sometimes referred to as Natural Tracing Paper and Vellum
Paper.
Glama Natural is manufactured in a variety of
visual textures such as brilliant and pastel colors, Clear,
Parchment, Marbled and Recycled (30% PCW). For technical
purposes we will discuss Glama Natural Clear.
Glama Natural Clear is easily identifiable by its
extraordinary, uniform fiber formation and very clear
appearance. When a single sheet is placed over an opaque
paper or any printed piece, the text or images beneath
are easily viewed. Because of the extraordinary show-through
of Glama Natural Clear, which has a translucent level
of as much as 74%, many different design elements and
concepts can be introduced into a printed piece.
The manufacturing process is known as "natural"
because the translucence of the paper is obtained through
a mechanical process, not a chemical process. The pulp
fibers of Glama Natural are highly refined into a gelatin-like
mass by large mill stones. After the pulp is prepared,
it is then introduced onto the paper machine where the
water and air are removed from the fibers. The fibers
then undergo heavy pressure from calendar stacks and are
transformed into Glama Natural translucent paper.
Why is the "natural" process significant?
The natural or mechanical process of making a translucent
paper provides many advantages. First, the natural process
achieves a significantly higher level of translucence
than chemical methods of making translucent paper, therefore
providing a much higher aesthetic appeal to the paper.
Also, the natural process allows for many more end uses
than other translucent papers. Glama Natural can be perfect
bound, converted into envelopes, laser printed, saddle
stitched, ink jet printed, printed two sides, multicolor
process printed, as well as used in drafting and drawing
applications. The environmental aspects of Glama Natural
are superior to most other translucent papers because
Glama Natural is recyclable, elementally chlorine free
and available in the only recycled grade on the market.
Glama Natural is also suitable for use in certain food
and drug packaging applications.
Most translucent papers manufactured in the USA
are "chemically transparentized." Chemically transparentized
papers are first manufactured as opaque papers and afterwards
petrol-chemically based resins are added (almost like
spilling cooking oil on a white shirt) to make the paper
translucent.
The chemical process has several disadvantages. First and foremost
it is considered to be significantly less friendly to
the environment (not recyclable) than the Natural process.
Second, the level of translucence in a chemically transparentized
paper is lower than the translucence in a naturally translucent
paper. The chemical process tends to make the paper fibers
brittle and therefore prone to cracking. It is generally
recommended that certain end uses like envelope manufacturing,
saddle stitching and perfect binding cannot be successfully
achieved with chemical sheets.
