The use of debonders/softening agents in facial and bath tissue is a common practice in the industry. It has been shown that adding such chemicals to the wet end of a tissue machine reduces adhesion to the drying surface. Generally speaking, debonders soften by interfering with fiber-to-fiber bonding and often reduce dryer adhesion when used in a creping process. The reduced adhesion results in less efficient sheet break-up and coarser creping. This reduction in sheet break-up takes away from the total softness of the tissue, which is contrary to the purpose for which the softener was added.
Consequently, various other techniques have been developed to counteract these problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,839 to Wendt, et al. describes an especially soft tissue produced using a closed creping pocket in conjunction with a softening agent. However, in some instances, the softness is enhanced to such an extent that slough is generated. Sloughing may be described generally as the loss of paper particles from the surface of the paper due to surface abrasion. Many consumers react negatively to paper that exhibits a high degree of sloughing.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a process, system and resulting product showing capable of providing a high degree of softness and strength, with reduced amounts of sloughing.