Why Does Paper Explode Under a Hydraulic Press?

Paper might not seem like something that should explode under a hydraulic press, yet that is exactly what happened in this video from Beyond the Press on YouTube.

Lauri Vuohensilta, the crazy Finnish host known for crushing all sorts of stuff with heavy machining equipment is notorious for creating videos demonstrating this with great care taken to ensure maximum safety precautions are observed during each video shoot.

The Hydraulic Press

A hydraulic press is a large machine that utilizes hydraulic power to shape objects into their desired form. It is used in crushing metals, paper, plastics and other materials. Sword-makers also utilize it as part of the blade-making process by compressing metals into suitable forms for sword blades. Blaise Pascal's law states that any object surrounded by constant forces will produce equal and opposite reactions in return.

The Hydraulic Press Channel (HPC) is a YouTube channel run by Finnish workshop owner Lauri Vuohensilta and his wife Anni that showcases things being crushed or destroyed using hydraulic presses. HPC quickly rose in popularity after one of their failed paper folding attempts went viral on Reddit in October 2015. Since then, HPC has gained over 1 Million subscribers and several sponsors.

Before pressing anything in a hydraulic press, it is imperative that its limit switch be properly configured. You can consult the manual of your machine or contact its manufacturer to achieve this objective; doing so will prevent you from applying too much pressure and potentially damaging its parts.

Once the limit switch is in place, select an appropriate material size and weight to fit between the plates of a hydraulic press. Furthermore, this material must not damage or injure yourself when being processed through it. When all is complete, switch on your machine and begin pressing!

Using a smaller hydraulic press requires placing material inside its mold before pressing it; otherwise it could get caught between its pistons and your mold, leading to it getting stuck between them and you having to clean out your mold prior to conducting another test.

As HPC primarily deals in crushing and destroying items, their videos often showcase other tasks they do in their shop - like straightening a bent excavator shovel or swapping out car wheel bearings - or going the extra mile in terms of safety precautions when operating explosive or risky hydraulic presses behind thick glass or other barriers.

The Folding Process

Mythbusters and Britney Gallivan disproved an old belief that paper can't be folded more than seven times, though she managed to do it 12 times! Each fold added additional pressure to its structure - yet why did A4 paper collapse so dramatically when subjected to pressure?

Answer may surprise you. In fact, paper contains a chemical known as calcium carbonate that makes it explode when crushed - this substance can also be found in limestone and marble as well as seashell shells and coral reef skeletons.

Crushing paper releases calcium carbonate from its fibers and cellulose structures into tiny spaces between its fibrils, filling those extra spaces with air to form potential energy stored within. One effective method for this energy release is turning paper into powder form.

That is exactly what happened with the stack of paper seen in the Hydraulic Press Channel video; it exploded into a cloud of tiny particles and it's an amazing sight to witness!

Lauri Vuohensilta has produced many videos for his YouTube channel that showcase crushing paperback books and playing cards using an enormous 144-ton hydraulic press, usually behind thick glass or other protective barriers for added safety measures.

Hydraulic Press Channel's videos are captivating to watch because they give an up-close glimpse at how objects under immense pressure can transform, even seemingly indestructible objects like steel. Furthermore, their experiments with ice have produced surprising and impressive results; next up will be testing which places humans under intense pressure within sealed containers! So make sure you stay tuned for more incredible experiments from Hydraulic Press Channel's team!

The Calcium Carbonate

Paper may look delicate at first glance, yet its strength belies its delicate exterior. Each sheet can withstand enormous amounts of pressure without breaking, making paper an excellent material choice for creating books, notepads and even reusable grocery bags.

However, paper can still become deformed under pressure under certain conditions due to calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate is an abundant natural mineral that can be found in various materials, including chalk, limestone, marble, calcite shells and pearls; and commonly added as an ingredient to many products like food and beverages.

Paper products often utilize fillers like starch as fillers in order to improve brightness, opacity and strength. Starch can often be mixed with water to form a slurry before being added during manufacturing process.

Aluminium oxide can also be found in paints, accounting for up to 30% of their weight. Furthermore, it's widely utilized in pharmaceutical industry as an antacid and calcium supplement - as well as being abundantly found throughout nature from fossils to coral reefs.

Thomas Amidon, a popular science writer, attributes the explosive reaction seen in the Hydraulic Press Channel video viral video to calcium carbonate being added during production of paper, and that seven folds caused its collapse due to compressing rigid calcium carbonate crystals which then collapsed under stress.

Amidon notes that the seventh fold is particularly striking due to its exponential increase in thickness. According to him, for every additional fold of paper it doubles in thickness and quadruples its surface area; as a result a single sheet of regular A3-sized paper may become over a kilometer thick after 23 folds or even exceed the limit of our universe after 103!

The Pressure

Hydraulic presses produce remarkable amounts of pressure; full-size hydraulic presses can generate as much as 144 tonnes of force, enough to crush cars or even kill people. Yet despite their immense force, hydraulic presses operate relatively simply: A pump generates an adjustable force amount before applying it through its cylinder onto whatever object needs crushing.

Under such pressure, objects begin to deform under immense strain, eventually collapsing structural integrity and producing the familiar "explosion" noise heard on online videos. Paper/card then shatter into bits that resemble wood rather than leafy sheets once existed.

Why does this occur? Calcium carbonate in paper is responsible. This mineral can be found in places like limestone and coral reefs and, when subjected to intense pressure, begins to break down, creating the explosive effect that gives paper its explosive character.

Paper explodes for multiple reasons. A common factor is when its cellulose fibers begin to break down; these give paper its strength but under extreme stress can fracture and dissolve into liquid, leading to its explosion and transformation into brittle material.

Finally, the hydraulic press causes a sudden release of energy via its immense force, and uses this to shatter brittle paper into individual components - leading to explosive transformations seen on many videos of this nature.

Hydraulic presses can be utilized in various ways, but it is best practice to only use them on items suitable for their machine. Any large or heavy objects could damage or injure both itself and those using the hydraulic press. Also important is ensuring that the hydraulic press is clean before use as any dirt or debris may get compressed into what will eventually be crushed by it.