What's coming up in paper? 

Will the papers of the future be a lot different to today’s papers? Will we see new materials with new, exciting characteristics? Or is paper a mature product that doesn’t offer much scope for improvement? The future will probably not be full of revolutionary discoveries. It will be more a case of evolution, an ongoing process of improvement and adding a finishing touch.

R&D is a key area of competence at Stora Enso. Some 350 people work at the company’s three Research Centres which are located in Karlstad, Sweden; Imatra, Finland; and Mönchengladbach, Germany. The centres coordinate with the product development departments at the mills, and also support the technical customer service sections of the sales companies.

At present, R&D is concentrated on aspects like the surface of the paper, raw materials, runnability, and the environment. Another hot area is the border areas between copying, digital printing and offset printing.