It need fiber, water, and some sort of sieve or screen. Paper-making methods and styles of screens abound. Screens might be made from cloth, bamboo, bronze, nylon mesh, hardware cloth, or heat shrinking polypropylene to name a few. Whatever material is used, paper-making screens all achieve the same purpose, which is capturing fibers while letting water drain through.All About Paper-making Screens – the essential tool of the paper maker
Look at the modern paper making machine and you see similarities to the hand paper making process using water, fiber and a screen. On a paper machine, wet pulp deposits onto a forming fabric. Forming fabric serves the same purpose as a screen used by a hand paper maker. It retains the fiber while letting water drain through. In the early days of industrial paper-making the screen was called machine wire, made from metal wires woven on a loom.
Today, forming fabric is woven on high speed, state of the art looms with synthetic threads and weaving patterns designed to produce different kinds of paper. Synthetic screen brought huge savings to the paper industry with screening that lasts longer and is easier to keep clean than metal.
