Making paper from stone
Many materials have been used to make paper over the years, including banana fibers and tree bark. Tainan’s Taiwan Lung Meng Technology has developed a process by which it turns marble into thin, lightweight stone-based papers.
The more than 3,300 square meters of Lung Meng’s factory are packed with reels of paper, but none of the paper pulp and steam that usually fill a paper mill. Instead, we see bag upon bag of fine stone powder which will soon be mixed with polyethylene (PE), a plastic, to form paper.
For all that the emergence of stone-based paper has upended people’s ideas about papermaking, this isn’t the first time stone powders have been used in paper. In the old days, some traditional paper mills would add a small amount of stone powder to their papers as a coloring agent. But using stone as the primary component of paper was far more challenging.
Even finding the right ratio of stone powder to PE was tough. Lung Meng vice president Leo Jean says that if the ratio is off, the final product is likely to be either rough or fragile. Many companies that would like to make stone-based paper have a hard time overcoming the technological hurdles.
Lung Meng chairman Liang Shi-hui’s background in manufacturing plastics and plastics-related machinery greatly aided his company’s efforts. Some 17 years after shutting down his plastics company, he has developed a series of innovative stone-based papers that are making their way into our everyday lives. Tokiya, a Wowprime subsidiary, and Make-up Art Cosmetics, better known as M·A·C, are both using stone-based paper for their shopping bags, and the material has even begun to be used for the lanterns at the Taipei Lantern Festival.
Although stone-based paper is 30% more expensive than pulp-based paper, it is both waterproof and fire resistant, making it especially useful for outdoor applications. For example, one Italian company uses the material for mountain climbing maps, and a Dutch publisher has begun using a thin, lightweight version of stone paper for cookbooks.
Recognizing that the average consumer is still unfamiliar with the product, Lung Meng has established the “im Stone” brand to design place mats, waterproof flower-pot holders, and decorative wall stickers made from the material. The company’s efforts yielded a 2016 Red Dot Award for its Rock Book, a notebook made from stone-based paper. Its cover incorporates a pattern of raised lines that are also formed from the material and add a tactile dimension to the design.
After nearly 2000 years of making paper from plants, the development of fiberless stone-based papers is penning a brand new chapter in the story of papermaking.
The tough paper used to build The Texture of Uncertainty, an outdoor installation at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum’s 2015 “X-Site” exhibition, contributed to the installation’s elegant tactility. (courtesy of the Suho Paper Memorial Museum)
The Suho Paper Memorial Museum includes a first-floor exhibit on the traditional process for making paper by hand.
Taiwan Lung Meng Technology has opened up new possibilities in papermaking by developing a process for making thin, lightweight paper from powdered marble.
Taiwan Lung Meng Technology has opened up new possibilities in papermaking by developing a process for making thin, lightweight paper from powdered marble.
Stone is first powdered, then mixed with polyethylene to form pellets that are used in the next stage of the process of making stone paper.
Paper bags, lanterns, notebooks and cute gift items can all be made using stone-based papers.
Paper bags, lanterns, notebooks and cute gift items can all be made using stone-based papers.