Abstract

Oftentimes there are misunderstandings or technical language barriers associated with questions and answers supplied across the research and commercial divide. If the researcher is not careful in how they define and conduct their laboratory experiments, a short answer problem such as “how will changing my chip distribution improve my yield,” can morph into a 2-year laboratory project that becomes of limited (if any) use to the pulp and paper mill. Another example is a question of “how do I improve the stiffness of my sheet while maintaining high bulk,” may result in a red herring that gives research a black eye, consumes 3-4 years of work, and produces no valuable results for the pulp and paper mill. These two case studies plus an example of improper data collection and understanding in a pulp and paper mill will be used as illustrations to discuss the importance of understanding how to design and report research studies while keeping the actual commercial facility in mind.