paper
Let an agent treat paper as a material with a grade and a weight that decide what can be done with it, rather than as an undifferentiated white sheet.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions
Grade and specification What paper this is, in the terms it is bought and used in.
Specification
Grammage, format, finish and grade.
How it is specified
The numbers that identify a paper for use.
- What grammage, format, finish and grade is this paper? definition
- Which of those must be matched exactly for the intended use, and which may vary? boundary
Fibre and origin
What it is made from and where that came from.
Fibre composition and claims
Virgin against recycled, and the certification attached.
- What fibre is this paper made from, and what certification covers its origin? provenance
- What does that certification not assert about the paper itself? boundary
Behaviour in use How it behaves when written on, printed on and handled.
Printability and surface
How ink and toner behave on it.
Surface behaviour
Absorbency, coating and what they do to marks.
- How does this paper take ink or toner, and what does that constrain? measurement
- Which processes is it unsuitable for, and how would that show? boundary
Mechanical behaviour
Folding, tearing, curling and grain.
Grain and handling
How direction and moisture govern handling.
- Which way does the grain run, and how does that affect folding and feeding? measurement
- What handling or conditioning does the process require before use? action
Permanence and storage How long it lasts and under what conditions.
Permanence
Acidity, lignin and expected life.
Expected life and its basis
What determines how long the sheet survives.
- What is the expected permanence of this paper, on what basis? measurement
- Which standard does it meet, and what does that standard actually promise? provenance
Storage conditions
Temperature, humidity, light and handling.
Required storage
Conditions that keep the promise, and what breaks it.
- What storage conditions does this paper require to reach its expected life? definition
- What must an agent do when stored paper shows cockling, foxing or mould? action
Supply and disposal Getting it and getting rid of it.
Supply and substitution
Availability and what may be substituted.
Substitution rules
What may replace a specified grade without changing the outcome.
- Which grades may substitute for this one, and what changes if they do? boundary
- What must be verified before accepting a substitution in a controlled process? action
Disposal and recycling
Streams, contamination and confidentiality.
Disposal route
Where it goes and what disqualifies it.
- Which disposal or recycling route applies to this paper, and what contaminates it? definition
- What must be destroyed rather than recycled, and under whose rule? action
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Information and virtual systems
- Entry kind
- thing
- Plane
- INF
- Domain
- INF.MED
- Other names and narrower kinds
- ink cartridge, wax paper, parchment paper, kaishi, Classic Crest, paper packaging, wrapping tissue, filter paper, opaline paper, Chemex filter, cardboard, art & craft paper
What it is Filled
A thin sheet material made from cellulose fibres pressed together while wet and dried, used to write on, print on, wrap with and wipe with.
Why it exists Filled
Let an agent treat paper as a material with a grade and a weight that decide what can be done with it, rather than as an undifferentiated white sheet.
Distinguishing features Filled
- Made of pressed cellulose fibre, which separates it from plastic film and from parchment
- A material, not a document: the sheet and what is written on it are different things
- Grade and grammage decide use more than any other property
- Acidity decides how long it lasts, which is why archival paper is a separate grade
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Destroy or recycle paper that may carry records without the holder's authority.
- Store paper near heat sources or defeat fire precautions in a paper store.
- Handle fragile or historic paper in ways that tear, wet or stain it.
- Read and pass on what is written on someone else's papers without permission.
Only with a human decision
- Discarding or pulping old papers whose value as records is unclear.
- Conservation treatment of rare or historic paper.
May
- Sort, store and handle paper according to its grade, weight and condition.
- Print, copy and file on paper as instructed by its owner.
- Report damp, mould, brittleness or fire risk in a paper store.
Moral aspects Filled
- Paper consumes forests, water and energy; waste and sourcing have environmental costs.
- Paper often carries private or historic content that outlives the reason it was written.
Who is affected
- Forest communities and ecosystems
- People named on papers
- Archives and their users
Owners Filled
Steward
The person or organization that holds it; for archival paper, the archive that keeps it.
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- Q3406743 - registry parent class
related
- material - inherits composition, grade and handling questions
- document - the document is the content and the record; paper is one carrier
- cardboard - the boundary is grammage and is conventional
- wood pulp - the supply chain and its certification start there
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.paper
- Wikidata: Q11472 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11472)
- grammage and format: e.g. 80 g/m2 A4 how paper is actually specified and ordered
- ISO 216: A, B, C series the format standard used almost everywhere except North America
- chain of custody certification: FSC or PEFC code about the fibre source, not the paper
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
- grammage: 30-400 g/m2 - 80 is ordinary office paper; above about 250 it is usually called board
- thickness: 0.05-0.5 mm
- moisture content: 4-8 % - paper takes up and gives off water with the air, which is why it curls and jams
- ignition temperature: 218-246 C
Plane INF: no invented physical properties.
Recognition optional Filled
- Grammage, judged by feel rather than sight, is the property that decides what a paper can be used for
- Watermarks and laid lines, visible against light, identify a maker and sometimes a period
- Grain direction, found by tearing or bending, decides how it folds and how it curls
- Coating and finish, seen at a glancing angle, decide how ink behaves on it
- Flat sheets or reels, usually white but made in any colour, from tissue thin enough to see through to board stiff enough to stand.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- write and print on it, which depends on surface and absorbency
- fold, cut and bind it
- wrap and protect things with it
- wet it, which usually ruins it
- burn it, which is why fire load is a real constraint on archives
- recycle it, a fixed number of times before the fibres are too short
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Acid degradation, which turns nineteenth and twentieth century paper brittle and yellow
- Water and humidity, which cause cockling, mould and complete loss
- Fire, where paper is the fuel that makes archives and offices burn
- Jamming and misfeeding in machines, which is a grain and moisture problem rather than a machine one
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- ISO 216, which defines the A and B paper sizes
- ISO 9706 and equivalents, which define permanence for archival paper
- Food contact regulations, for paper used in packaging
- Forest certification schemes, which govern claims about fibre origin
Context of use required Filled
- Carrying marks that last: writing, printing and records, and beyond that packaging, hygiene and filtering.
- by use: writing, printing, packaging, tissue, speciality
- by grade: uncoated, coated, recycled, archival, security
- by form: sheet, reel, board
- by fibre: virgin, recycled, mixed
Sources Filled
- Wikidata item Q11472: paper - identity and sense of the item
- Wikipedia: Paper - general description of the item
Open questions
- Should paper the material and the sheet in hand be separate models, since grade belongs to the material and condition to the sheet?
- How should permanence claims be represented so they stay tied to the storage conditions they assume?
- What is the right way to record recycled content when the fibre mix varies between reels of one grade?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q11472/spec.json