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Welcome
to Taj Paper Udyog's paper manufacturing unit. It is located in a
small town called Sanganer near the famous Pink City of Jaipur. Here
is a representation of how our paper is handmade.
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Cotton and silk remnants
( byproduct of undergarment industry) are sorted by hand to remove any foreign material and
dust which is then fed into a machine called Rag Chopper which chops them into small
uniform pieces.
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The chopped pieces are then put into a Hollander beater
which beats and crushes the fibers in water to force the cellulose fibers to osmose and opened out to form a pulp.
When dried cotton fibers form hydrogen bonds with each other.
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The pulp from the Hollander
is then poured into a mould covered with a fine wire mesh which is clamped between two wooden deckles (frames)
which holds the pulp in place. This defines the edge of the sheet. All
this is done in a water tank so that the pulp spreads evenly over the surface of the mould.
The mould is then raised to drain excess water.
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The wet pulp is transferred onto a felt sheet.
These are then stacked and the stack is transferred to a hydraulic press
which squeezes excess water from the sheets; consequently cohering the pulp; hence paper.
For decorated paper inclusions of flower petals, leaves, silk, straw, grass, jute, or
wool etc are added at this point. |
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| The stack
is then removed from the press and the sheets are separated from
each other. |
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The separated
sheets are then hung in the shade to dry up. |
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| The sheets
are dried naturally without the use of any power consuming machinery
thus making the paper absolutely environment friendly. |
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The paper is then placed between galvanized metallic plates and passed
two three times through a calendaring machine to smooth and gloss the surface.
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Because cotton is absorbent the papers need to be sized to take ink or watercolor. Size is added internally during the beating, and again on the surface after the sheet has been made, by dipping the sheets in a solution of
gelatin. The gelatin size gives the papers a hard, resistant surface and they can stand up to a lot of rough treatment.
The dried sheets are then sorted according to their quality. |
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Sheets are then cut to
required size for various uses. |
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| Handmade
Paper is dried naturally so its in a dip in supply during the rainy
season. Taj Paper Udyog keeps a good stock to cater to its customers
demand, round the year. |
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