{"id":1430,"date":"2026-09-08T08:36:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T00:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sheeonpulp.com\/?post_type=news&p=1430"},"modified":"2026-09-10T09:20:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T01:20:50","slug":"bamboo-pulp-fiber-properties-explained","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/sheeonpulp.com\/es\/noticias\/bamboo-pulp-fiber-properties-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Bamboo Pulp Fiber Properties Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sheeon Pulp Technical Team | Corporate Technical Team | Published: September 2026<\/p>\n

Bamboo pulp fiber is the cellulose fiber extracted from bamboo stalks through pulping and bleaching, used as a wood-pulp alternative in paper, packaging, and molded-fiber production. Fiber length, tensile index, and tear index, not brightness alone, determine how a given bamboo pulp grade performs on a paper machine.<\/p>\n

What Bamboo Pulp Fiber Actually Is<\/h2>\n

Pulpa de bamb\u00fa<\/a><\/strong><\/span> starts as bamboo stalk material, which is cooked and refined into a fiber suitable for papermaking. Sheeon produces two grades from this raw material: Bleached Bamboo Pulp and Unbleached Bamboo Pulp. The bleached grade goes through additional processing to raise brightness for white paper, tissue, and printing applications. The unbleached grade retains most of its natural color and is typically routed toward packaging or molded-fiber uses where brightness matters less than mechanical strength and cost.<\/p>\n

Unlike a single blended commodity pulp, each grade carries its own fiber length, strength index, and dirt count range, which is why buyers comparing bamboo pulp to wood pulp need the individual product sheet rather than a general industry description.<\/p>\n

Why Fiber Length and Strength Indices Matter<\/h2>\n

A pulp buyer evaluating runnability on an existing paper machine typically checks four figures before anything else:<\/p>\n

1.Fiber length \u2014 longer fiber generally supports a stronger sheet network, but only within a range the existing machine settings can handle without refining adjustments.<\/p>\n

2.Tensile index \u2014 how much pulling force the resulting sheet withstands per unit of basis weight, expressed in N\u00b7m\/g.<\/p>\n

3.Tear index \u2014 resistance to tearing once a small cut or defect starts propagating, expressed in mN\u00b7m\u00b2\/g.<\/p>\n

4.Burst index \u2014 resistance to a sheet rupturing under pressure, expressed in kPa\u00b7m\u00b2\/g, relevant for packaging-grade paper and molded fiber trays.<\/p>\n

Viscosity is a secondary but still practical figure: it correlates with how much the fiber’s cellulose chains have degraded during cooking and bleaching, and low viscosity outside a mill’s normal range can signal a pulp batch that behaves differently in beating than the buyer’s prior shipments.<\/p>\n

\"Pulpa<\/p>\n

Bleached vs. Unbleached Bamboo Pulp: Specification Comparison<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Par\u00e1metro<\/b><\/strong><\/td>\nPulpa de bamb\u00fa blanqueada<\/b><\/strong><\/td>\nPulpa de bamb\u00fa sin blanquear<\/b><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Luminosidad<\/td>\napproximately 85%<\/td>\n40\u201343%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fiber length<\/td>\n>1.7 mm<\/td>\n>2.2 mm<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00cdndice de tracci\u00f3n<\/td>\n>55 N\u00b7m\/g<\/td>\n>50 N\u00b7m\/g<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00cdndice de desgarro<\/td>\n>8.5 mN\u00b7m\u00b2\/g<\/td>\n>8.0 mN\u00b7m\u00b2\/g<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00cdndice de r\u00e1fagas<\/td>\n>5.0 kPa\u00b7m\u00b2\/g<\/td>\n>4.5 kPa\u00b7m\u00b2\/g<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Viscosidad<\/td>\n600\u2013800 ml\/g<\/td>\nnot published<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dirt count, 0.3\u20131.0 mm\u00b2<\/td>\n<25 mm\u00b2\/500 g<\/td>\n<35 mm\u00b2\/500 g<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dirt count, 1.0\u20134.0 mm\u00b2<\/td>\n<20 mm\u00b2\/500 g<\/td>\n<35 mm\u00b2\/500 g<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dirt count, >4.0 mm\u00b2<\/td>\nNinguno<\/td>\nNinguno<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Referenced test methods<\/td>\nGB\/T 8940.2, GB\/T 10740, GB\/T 7982, GB\/T 1548, GB\/T 10336-2002<\/td>\nGB\/T 8940.2, GB\/T 10740, GB\/T 7982, GB\/T 1548, GB\/T 10336-2002<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Compared with generic wood-pulp data sheets that often list only brightness and moisture, this level of detail, dirt count broken out by particle-size class and tear, tensile, and burst indices reported separately, gives a mill more to check against its own runnability requirements before requesting a sample.<\/p>\n

The Part Most Buyers Miss: Fiber Length Doesn’t Track Tear Index Here<\/h2>\n

A common assumption is that a longer minimum fiber length should produce a higher minimum tear index, since longer fibers are usually associated with better tear resistance in general papermaking theory. The published ranges above don’t follow that pattern. Pulpa de bamb\u00fa sin blanquear<\/a><\/strong><\/span> carries the longer minimum fiber length, at >2.2 mm against >1.7 mm for the bleached grade, yet its minimum tear index is lower, at >8.0 mN\u00b7m\u00b2\/g against >8.5 mN\u00b7m\u00b2\/g.<\/p>\n

This isn’t necessarily a contradiction. Bleaching changes fiber surface chemistry and bonding potential in ways that can offset a shorter average fiber length, and the figures here are minimum thresholds rather than a controlled side-by-side study of the same fiber batch before and after bleaching. The practical takeaway for a buyer: don’t assume fiber length alone predicts strength performance across bleached and unbleached grades of the same raw material. Request the tear and tensile figures directly rather than inferring them from fiber length.<\/p>\n

How to Evaluate These Parameters as a Buyer<\/h2>\n