If one goes back to the late 1950s, early 1960s, automobiles and paper machines were made of nearly the same thing: lots of steel.
However, starting in the late 1960s, early 1970s, these paths diverged. Automobiles went to plastics and other materials, such as aluminum. Paper machines stayed with steel, but moved to a larger percentage of stainless steel.
And that is where both mechanisms remain today. At the heart of what we are trying to accomplish in the Light Green Machine Institute is to move out of steel and its derivatives wherever possible. We are in our sixth year of this quest, yet it seems like the more we think about it and work on it, the more possibilities there are.
Paper machines, in our opinion, have stayed with steel and stainless steel solely because of the attitude: we want to make it last.
This attitude is not in tune with the markets. Paper products no longer last for decades in a given form. I'll argue, for instance, that even that old standby, linerboard, bears little resemblance to the linerboard of the late 1980s. As for printing and writing grades and newsprint--well, we all know what has happened to them.
When we stop thinking about building paper machines to last forever, we will start exploring other materials from which to make them. It is as simple as this.
with "LGMI Frontiers" in the subject line.
Feedback from an earlier topic:
Why not made from corrugated board coated with a resin-plastic? RAUL SZUCHMAN
 LGMI DESIGN PRACTICES ARE NOW AVAILABLE!
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