Machine crews and testers hold a sheet against a light table or a window and judge whether it looks close, mottled, cloudy or wild. A good look-through shows a fine, even texture with no large dark clumps. It is quick and subjective, but experienced crews can spot a headbox or slice problem from it before instruments confirm anything.
Look-through on the last reel is wild compared with yesterday, somebody touched the slice.
Hold the new sheet next to a retained sample from a good run under the same light; memory is a poor reference.
Also heard as
- look-through test
Related terms
Formation
How evenly fibers are spread through a paper sheet, judged by small-scale variation in mass.
Wild formation
Very uneven, blotchy formation with obvious flocs and thin areas when the sheet is held to the light.
Floc
Clump of entangled fibers in stock or in the finished sheet, the building block of poor formation.