Winter Paper Conditioning in the Upper Midwest

Author: Jim Hesch, Customer Service Leader

I hope you will be joining us for press OK’s this winter! While you may need to bring a warm jacket, I promise you it will be 70 degrees inside our pressroom with plenty of warm and inviting smiles to greet you. Fun fact, 90% of our customers are located outside the state of MN with many traveling from both the East and West Coasts. The average January high temperature is 23 degrees F and the average low is 7 degrees F.  The average snowfall is 12”. This is a perfect scenario to make a snow angel on our front lawn. Minnesota takes great pride in keeping its roadways and airports open and free of snow. We love it here (or we wouldn’t stay).

Paper Transportation

In winter in the upper Midwest, paper travels by standard truck or rail.  It is very expensive to ship in heated containers, so paper gets very cold during shipping. Cold paper does not run as well; it dries out, wrinkles, has problems with ink drying and can affect print quality, dot gain, and overall color. For paper to perform well, it needs to be acclimated to press room temperature and moisture levels.

Guidelines

Paper Company guidelines vary, however, a good rule of thumb is to allow paper to acclimate to pressroom conditions for at least 24 hours and up to 100 hours. The heavier the paper and the colder the outside temperature, the longer it takes to warm up. At Nahan, we plan for paper to arrive a few days earlier in the winter months to allow for paper to acclimate so it runs at it’s best.

Here is a link to Neenah Paper Conditioning chart:

https://www.neenahpaper.com/resources/printer-resources/paper-conditioning

So the advice we have for you is to dress warm and travel to Minnesota to enjoy our winter wonderland and order paper in early so it can warm up.

Here is a link from Minnesota Public Radio on Minnesota’s beautiful winters.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2013/01/25/photos-minnesotas-bitterly-cold-brightly-beautiful-winter

About the Author: Jim Hesch is a Department Manager here at Nahan, was born in North Dakota but spent his early years in California. He is now entrenched in the Minnesota culture of shoveling snow, opinions on the meaning of life, and blogging. Come join us!

Photo Credit: Adam Rohde