Watermarking

Watermarking is the process of creating a design in the sheet of paper. A Watermark cannot be scanned or easily duplicated and provides an easy method of document authentication.

The desired pattern is created on a dandy roll (wire mesh cylinder) that rides on top of the wet paper.

As the wet paper comes into contact with the pattern on the dandy roll the paper becomes a little thinner and more translucent where the fibres have been dispersed by the raised pattern.

Although the sheet is quite wet, it is so strongly formed by this time that the fibres remain permanently displaced.

The dandy roll is used to compact the sheet and help give good formation, background and to add the watermark.

When watermarks are well made they are difficult to see on the surface but very clear when looking through the sheet to light

There are 4 types of dandy rolls used at the Mill.

1. Plain wove dandy
2. Laid dandy – or watermarked dandy
3. A segmented dandy so three or four different watermarks can be made at the same time on the Papermachine in smaller quantities.
4. Sleeve type dandy (interchangeable)