Working in the Paper Industry

A recent survey by the Syracuse Pulp and Paper Foundation asked the question of alumni of the Paper Engineering and Paper Science programs at SUNY-ESF, "Would you still recommend a career in the pulp and paper industry to a college student? Why or why not?"  Chester Dunbar Crowell, Jr. ’52 gave a uniquely thoughtful response: “I would recommend a career in the pulp and paper industry to conserve world forests.”

Marbling with Mimi Schliecher

This week we had the pleasure of having Mimi Schliecher with us to demonstrate paper marbling.  Marbling is a surface art form that transfers floating inks to paper.  In the process, ink of various colors are floated on the surface of water and moved into designs using various rakes and combs.  A print of this ink is made by lowering a sheet of paper onto the surface to make a unique print of the design.  Marbling as an art form reaches back to Turkey and perhaps as far back as Japan and China from many hundreds of years ago.

During her visit, Mimi helped students in PSE 201-The Art and History of Papermaking- design and make some of their own marbled paper.  In addition, a workshop was held were various members of the campus community were able to also try their hand at marbling.

If you want to learn more about marbling, please visit her website at http://marbling.com.

  Mimi Schleicher

  Mimi's work

Mimi's work

Artists at work

Artists at work

PBE Students at the Westcott Street Cultural Fair

Students from the Department of Paper and Bioprocess Engineering teamed up with the Girl Scouts to offer handmade papermaking at the Westcott Street Cultural Fair on Sunday, 13 September 2009.   The Fair is a annual, one-day celebration of the diversity of the Westcott Street neighborhood including kids' activities, performing art, a parade, and of course food.  More information about the fair can be found at www.westcottfair.org.

PBE Students teamed up with the Girl Scouts of Troop 487 to offer handmade papermaking in the kids' activity area near the branch library.  With the help of the Girl Scouts and PBE students, visitors were able to make and decorate sheets of paper from recycled newsprint.  This fit directly in with the "Green Theme" of the fair for this year.

Paper and Bioprocess Engineering at the Fair

Once again the PBE department worked a day at the New York State Fair at the SUNY-ESF tent near the State Park Buildings.  As we do every year, the projects of the day were handmade papermaking and chromotography flowers.  The weather was nice and the business was brisk at the tent.

The paper chromotography flowers are created from filter paper and water-soluble markers.  As the water wicks up through the filter paper, it carries the various colored dyes from the markers, making a colorful array of flowers.

 

Visitors were also able to make a sheet of handmade paper and decorate it with pulp painting.  Making a sheet of paper involves a number of steps including forming the sheet, couching, pressing, and finally air drying the sheet.  Manning the both during the course of the day were faculty, staff, students, and even a member of the Board of Directors of the Syracuse Pulp and Paper Foundation.

Many of the visitors were quite creative in the decorating of their sheet of paper using pulp painting.  

Students at SUNY-ESF are able to learn more about the artistic nature of paper and the history of paper and its influence on the development of civilization.  PSE 201-The Art and History of Papermaking-is a new course being offered for the second time through the PBE department.  It covers the artistic aspects of paper as well as the history of paper, especially in ancient China.  Students taking this course can satisfy the SUNY General Education requirement in either "The Arts" or "Other World Civilizations." 

A New Year Begins

Welcome back to the Chairman's Blog for the Department of Paper and Bioprocess Engineering at the State University of New York--College of Environmental Science and Forestry.  A lack of posts over the summer does not indicate a lack of activity, just a break from blogging.  I hope to keep you up to date on a weekly basis over the next academic year.

This year we are welcoming 26 new students to the program:  17 freshman and 9 transfer students.   We have students enrolling in all three of our programs:  Paper Engineering, Paper Science, and Bioprocessing Engineering.  The Bioprocess Engineering has become our most popular program in terms of new students, accounting for about 2/3 of the total incoming students.

As part of their introduction to SUNY-ESF and the PBE department, we held an orientation program for the new students which also included a number of tours.  As we did in years past, we toured RockTenn Solvay (formerly Solvay Paperboard) and the InBev Budweiser plant (Anhaeuser-Busch).  In addition, the students had the opportunity to visit some of the college properties to learn how the raw material for our industries is grown and harvested.

As their semester begins, these new students will not only begin their studies at SUNY-ESF, they will also be preparing for interviews for internships.   One of their first assignments is to begin to prepare a resume for this.

As we welcome the students to campus, we also congratulate those students receiving scholarships through the Syracuse Pulp and Paper Foundation, the ESF Foundation, and other funding sources.  Your continued support of these organizations helps these students to be here and to become the future engineers for the industry.

New students in PBE preparing to depart on one of their tours as part of their orientation.

Congratulations Graduates

Last Saturday, 7 students graduated with their B.S. degree in either Paper Engineering or Paper Science.  (We expect our first graduate in the Bioprocess Engineering program next May).  The graduate were:

Jeremy Bower
Tor Goettsche
Casie Goodwin
Lorie Kline
Aaron Kosinski
Michael Marchese
Christopher Wood

We wish these graduates well in starting their careers or their continuing education.  Many of these graduates joined us for a breakfast reception prior to the ESF Convocation on Saturday, 9 May 2009.  This was an opportunity for the family and friends of the graduates to meet the faculty and staff that the students have been interacting with over the past four years.

In addition to the conversation, a slide slow of the students in action during the senior paper machine run was shown.

  

Best wishes to the class of 2009!

New Dandy Roll on the #1 Papermachine

The new dandy roll for the #1 Papermachine was delivered and installed today.  The roll, reflecting the new logo being used at the college, will be used in the student papermachine run tomorrow in order to make the stationery paper to be used by the department and perhaps even more generally by the college. 

The roll was delivered by Bob Johnston, Vice President, and Robert Van Tassel, Sales Engineer, from the Johnston Dandy Co.  The local division of Johnston Dandy Company is E.F. Cook Co.  We are extremely pleased with their generosity, as this is at least the second dandy roll that they have provided for us over the years. 

In the papermaking process, the dandy roll is the piece of equipment used on a papermachine to impart a watermark onto the sheet.  The students tomorrow will need to make adjustments to the machine in order to appropriately mark the sheet with the dandy roll.

While they were visiting, Mr. Johnston and Mr. Van Tassel took the opportunity to speak with the students on watermarking and answering their questions.  The students got the opportunity to look at a number of different watermarks produced by Dandy Rolls made by Johnston Dandy Company and how to best make the dandy roll work.  We are again very appreciative of the support of Johnston Dandy Company and all of our corporate, alumni, and other supporters.