A tall vertical stack, often ten or more rolls, in which each steel roll runs against a softer filled roll, so the web passes through many nips that combine pressure, slip and heat. It produces the dense, glossy surface of supercalendered (SC) magazine papers and finishes many coated grades. Every nip also costs bulk and opacity, so operators balance gloss targets against caliper and show-through.
Supercalender is running two nips short while they rebuild a filled roll, so gloss will be low on these sets.
Also heard as
- supercal
- super
Related terms
Calender
Stack of hard rolls that presses a paper web to make it smoother, glossier and more even in thickness.
Gloss
The mirror-like shine of a paper or print surface, measured as specular reflectance at a defined angle.
Calender blackening
Dark, translucent spots or streaks produced when calendering crushes a sheet that is too wet or under too much nip load.
Bulk
Volume per unit mass of paper, the inverse of density, usually given in cubic centimeters per gram.