Patent ID: 8440054

Claim:
A calender for calendering a paper web, in particular made from paper suitable for gravure printing, having at least one roll stack which in each case has an upper and a lower end roll and intermediate rolls, one of the two end rolls delimits a first working nip of the roll stack depending on the guidance of the paper web, and the rolls are hard rolls and soft rolls in order to form loadable working nips in the form of soft nips, wherein in that the end roll which delimits the first working nip is a hard, heated roll, the diameter of which is greater than that of a hard, heated intermediate roll and the outer wall of which forms one of two contact faces of a web treatment nip which is arranged upstream of the first working nip, and the other contact face is formed by a belt which circulates on guide rolls, wherein the hard, heated intermediate roll comprises a plurality of openings therein for heating the outer surface of the hard heated intermediate roll to a temperature at least slightly higher than a plasticization temperature of the paper web at a selected moisture content.