Article Tissue Paper Softness: A Comparison Between Different Experimental Assessment Approaches Ant ó nio de O. Mendes 1, *, Joana C. Vieira 1 , Ana M. Carta 2 , Joana M. R. Curto 1 , Maria E. Amaral 1 , Ana P. Costa 1 and Paulo T. Fiadeiro 1
1 Fiber Materials and Environmental Technologies Research Unit (FibEnTech-UBI), University da Beira Interior, R.Marqu ê sD’ Á vila e Bolama, 6201-001 Covilh ã , Portugal 2 Forest and Paper Research Institute (RAIZ), R. Jos é Estev ã o, Eixo, 3800-783 Aveiro, Portugal * Correspondence: ant.mendes@ubi.pt Abstract: In this work, four different experimental assessment approaches, namely, the Tissue Softness Analyzer (TSA), a Subjective Evaluation (SUB), the Kawabata Evaluation System (KES), and an Optical System (OPT), were used for the evaluation of softness on a set of 29 different tissue paper products. After processing and the interpretation of the results given by each one of the used methods, a procedure was implemented in the current work to make a comparison between them. The procedure consists in tracking the position of the tissue paper products on a ranking table, regardless of what values were obtained through each one of the four used methods independently. This comparison revealed to be very useful in determining the differences verified between methods allowing to conclude which ones were the least and the most concordant, and, at the same time, enabling us to identify interesting cases of tissue paper products on the set that caught our attention for their distinctive characteristics.
Keywords: tissue paper; softness; tissue softness analyzer; subjective evaluation; Kawabata evaluation system; optical system
Academic Editors: Fernão D. Magalhães and Elena de la Fuente González
1. Introduction Tissue paper [1–3] is an everyday life utility that is everywhere and is widely used by practically everyone. Simply put, at some point, any person will use or be in contact with a product made of tissue, for example, a table napkin, hygienic tissue paper, facial tissue, a paper towel, a kitchen roll, wrapping tissue, and many others [2,4]. Tissue paper has become a multibillion market in size [2,5]. In particular, according to the global data and business intelligence platform Statista [6], the revenue generated in the tissue market worldwide is projected to reach 370.8 billion US dollars in 2025 with an anticipated annual growth of 5.10% in the next five years. In this sense, from a business strategy point of view, the manufacturing companies in the field will continue diversifying their portfolios and improving the quality and the performance of their products in order to keep a high level competitiveness with their rivals, keeping their usual clients satisfied so as to not lose sales, and targeting the arrival of new ones. Of course, when a client is in a store and goes to buy tissue products, he/she encounters dozens or even hundreds of different products from different brands. Thus, with so many options to consider, which product(s) will this person ultimately purchase? This is a question of the most importance and the key for success in the business. Marketing and price are very relevant, and, in fact, there are people that might choose the products they are going to purchase based solely or primarily on the brand or on the price. However, this is not a universal rule, and other
Received: 11 October 2024 Revised: 28 November 2024 Accepted: 6 January 2025 Published: 7 January 2025
Citation: Mendes, A.d.O.; Vieira, J.C.; Carta, A.M.; Curto, J.M.R.; Amaral, M.E.; Costa, A.P.; Fiadeiro, P.T. Tissue Paper Softness: A Comparison Between Different Experimental Assessment Approaches. Materials 2025 , 18 , 228. https:// doi.org/10.3390/ma18020228 Copyright: © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/).
Materials 2025 , 18 , 228
https://doi.org/10.3390/ma18020228
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