Bale - solid, compressed stack of pulp or paper sheets.
Barytes - Blanc fix of Barium Sulphate, high white loading. Used for coating photocopier base papers and lithos.
Beating Or Refining - the mechanical treatment of the fibres in water to increase surface area, flexibility and promote bonding when dried.
Bible Paper - thin printing paper, maximum of 50gsm, opaque. It is intended specially for use in deluxe productions; eg bibles, dictionaries and high quality publicity productions. Bible paper indicates a paper containing at least 25% rag.
Binder - the adhesive used to stick the layers of coating together and to the paper or board surface. The most frequently used binder is starch, but synthetic binders are also used to give improved performance.
Biodegradable - substance which will decompose as the result of action by bacteria and other livings organisms.
Blade coated - Paper coated by a process in which the freshly applied wet coating is smoothed and the excess removed by a thin, flexible metal blade which bears on the coated surface.
Bleaching - a chemical treatment used to whiten, brighten and improve the performance of pulp.
Blotting Paper - very absorbent and bulky, woodfree, sometimes made from a pulp of cotton or wool fibres.
Board - papers usually 220 gsm or over are generally classified as boards however, this can vary between manufacturers (from as low as 180g/m2 to as high as 250g/m2). They are most often of more than one ply.
BOD - Bio-chemical Oxygen Demand.
BPOP - Abbreviation for "Bulk packed onto pallets".
Broke - paper or board that is discarded at any stage during its manufacture and is usually re-pulped. There are 2 kinds - wet broke, which is accumulated at the wet end of the papermaking machine; dry broke which is accumulated at any stage on the dry end of the machine, trimmings from the reeling, slitting and cutting operations, as well as paper or board rejected during sorting.
Bulk - the number obtained by dividing the thickness, in micrometers of paper or board, by its grammage. ie. mass per unit volume.
