cleaning of the press fabrics no paper being manufactured on the reel was required with an alkaline detergent this not only caused loss of paper production but also led to culled production during manufacturing due to sheet defects that occurred in between the intervals of downtime washing events these defects i e corrugations wrinkles and ridges were caused by variation in cross direction cd moisture content of the sheet this was caused by soiling of the press felts and due to the fact that no u201c on the run u201d felt washing capability was available to correct the problem additionally no machine moisture adjustments were available other than dry weight headbox control the test consisted of application of alternating two cleaning compounds through the high pressure showers of each press fabric at various frequencies and durations and measuring the effects upon felt uhle box vacuums press filtrate de watering rates press felt water permeability profiles press felt service life sheet quality and machine runnability and up time the best results were observed when an acid and alkaline cleaner were alternated every other hour at the rate of 24 minutes on and 36 minutes off each hour 12 feed cycles each per day at a concentration in the range of 0 12 0 15 this novel cleaning program resulted in huge improvements to the paper machine 39 s production and quality yield buy lowering cd sheet moisture variation improvement in reel shape and fewer sheet breaks during felt washing the overall results of the new cleaning program were as follows the trial machine monthly total losses for wrinkles were reduced to 19 1 tons during the 4 month trial period from 58 2 tons pre trial and a.