Characterization of facial tissue softness.

APPLICATION: This model, coupled with enabling technologies, opens the possibility of development of on-line softness monitoring capabilities.

Tissue softness is one of the most consumer-desired properties, but quantifying that quality is challenging. Softness is a multidimensional perception that includes sight, sound, and touch. It is believed that the sensation of softness is influenced by surface and bulk softness. This study systematically investigated the effects of various tissue physical properties contributing to human tactile sensation of facial tissue. We developed a three-parameter softness model based on the cross direction-to-machine direction tensile ratio, surface arithmetic roughness, and average elastic modulus. The model was able to predict facial tissue softness for traditional commercial creping technology; however, it does not predict well on tissue softness scores for through-air-drying samples. View this paper online at http://www.tappi.org/index.asp?pid=29096

Jin Liu is working at Intel Corporation. Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Jeffery Hsieh is Professor and Director, Pulp and Paper Engineering, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0100, USA. Email Hsieh at [e-mail].