The continual quest to improve on the end-use performance of existing coated papers and development of new products is a costly effort. Paper companies and suppliers depend on laboratory and/or pilot coater facilities for product improvement and development of new coated paper products. A pilot coater facility can simulate most production conditions. However, it is quite costly to operate and maintain. Most laboratories are equipped to screen coatings but not to simulate high speed blade

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... conditions without a high speed pilot coater . The Cylindrical Laboratory Coater (CLC) helps fill the need between a laboratory and pilot coater. The CLC is a high speed laboratory blade coater which facilitates low cost research and experimentation into coated paper improvements, new product development and coating rheology. This paper discusses the features of the Cylindrical Laboratory Coater and discusses some studies done with groundwood containing papers.