Part one of the series presented a short history of pulp and paper industry, background of selecting the theme and introductory briefing on basic technologies. Part two presented how newsprint and the way of producing it have evolved in the past 60 years, along with fiber source exploitation in 60 years. Part three described how paper machine for new print production developed in the past 60 years. In this paper, the characteristics of technological development in Japan are discussed, and then are compared with those of other counties.
The Japanese paper industry has been continuously improving its capability of manufacturing to one of top levels in the world. The capability of manufacturing means to have equipment of high productivity, operate it in high efficiency and manufacture product of excellent cost performance, which is what the Japanese paper industry has done. A culture which has been nurtured in mills and is quite unique in the world has helped the development.
The capabilities for other technologies such as energy saving (highest efficiency in the world) , environmental conservation (satisfying the most severe levels of regulations) , R& D (a top level in product development) and technical training (a source of technical competitiveness) are also discussed. Then the characteristics are compared with those of other paper producing countries. It is positive that every country makes the best of its resources to be competitive in the world.
In Part five, the history of technical development of one newsprint machine which was installed in 1960 as one of largest paper machines in the world and is still running with the highest efficiency will be reviewed as a case study in Japan.
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