Atlanta, Georgia-- May 11, 2004 —TAPPI, the leading technical association for the worldwide pulp, paper, and converting industry recently announced that two IPST researchers are the recipients of the Outstanding Research Paper Award for 2003. Emmanuel Lafond and Ted Jackson from the IPST research faculty, are two of the five co-authors on the paper, "Laser Ultrasonic System for On-Line Measurement of Elastic Properties of Paper" , Journal of Pulp and Paper Science, Vol. 29, No. 9, pp. 289-293, P Ridgway, R. Russo, E. Lafond, C. Habeger, T. Jackson, September 2003.

Wayne Gross, Executive Director of TAPPI said, “Only eight papers were nominated to receive this honor; this paper was ranked first based on the criteria of innovation, creativity, scientific merit, and clarity. Congratulations on this outstanding honor”.

Dr. Jim Frederick, Director of IPST said, “Congratulations on receiving Tappi Journal's Outstanding Research Paper Award for 2003. I am very pleased for both of you, and of course also pleased that you have represented IPST so well with this accomplishment.”

The award was given to the recipients during the TAPPI Honors ceremony at Paper Summit on May 4, 2004 .

Abstract:
A laser-based ultrasonic system for non-contact measurement of the elastic properties of paper was evaluated on a pilot paper coating machine operating at paper web speeds of up to 25.4 m/s (5,000 ft /min).  Flexural rigidity and out-of-plane shear rigidity were calculated from the frequency dependence of the phase velocity of Ao mode Lamb waves.  These ultrasonic waves were generated in the paper with a pulsed Nd:YAG laser.  Fiber optic delivery of the generation pulse was demonstrated.  Lamb waves were detected with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer coupled with a scanning mirror/timing system to compensate for paper motion.  Six paper grades ranging in basis weight from 39 to 100g/m^2, and a 280g/m^2 paperboard were tested. For the six paper grades, the on-line laser-ultrasonic measurements of flexural rigidity agreed within experimental error with conventional laboratory contact ultrasonic measurements on stationary samples.