General	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2014
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
General	General Nature of Business Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc., or SWM or the Company, is a multinational diversified producer of premium specialty papers and plastic nettings headquartered in the United States of America. The Company manufactures and sells paper and reconstituted tobacco products to the tobacco industry as well as specialized paper products for use in other applications. We manufacture lightweight specialty papers, which are used in manufacturing ventilated cigarettes, and banded papers for the production of lower ignition propensity, or LIP, cigarettes and are the leading independent producer of RTL used in producing blended cigarettes. We also manufacture resin-based plastic netting through an extrusion process, as well as certain meltblown products and machined plastic core tubes. Our primary products sold to the tobacco industry include cigarette, plug wrap and base tipping papers, or Cigarette Papers, used to wrap various parts of a cigarette and reconstituted tobacco leaf, or RTL, which is used as a blend with virgin tobacco in cigarettes, reconstituted tobacco wrappers and binders for cigars. These products are sold directly to the major tobacco companies or their designated converters in the Americas, Europe, Asia and elsewhere. Our non-tobacco industry products are a diverse mix of products that includes low volume, high-value engineered papers as well as commodity paper grades produced to maximize our machine utilization. In December 2013, we acquired DelStar, Inc. ("DelStar"), a manufacturer of plastic netting and other resin-based products focused on the filtration and medical markets. In December 2014, we acquired certain assets from Pronamic Industries, Inc., or Pronamic, and from Smith & Nephew's, or SNN, Advanced Wound Management Division which have been incorporated into our Filtration operating segment. We conduct business in over 90 countries and operate 16 production locations worldwide, with facilities in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Luxembourg, Russia, Brazil, China and Poland. We also have a 50% equity interest in two joint ventures in China. The first, China Tobacco Mauduit (Jiangmen) Paper Industry Ltd., or CTM, produces cigarette and porous plug wrap papers and the second, which began operations in the third quarter of 2014, China Tobacco Schweitzer (Yunnan) Reconstituted Tobacco Co. Ltd., or CTS, which produces RTL. As used in this 2014 Annual Report on Form 10-K, unless the context indicates otherwise, references to "we," "us," "our," "SWM," "Schweitzer-Mauduit" or similar terms include Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.

General

Nature of Business

Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc., or SWM or the Company, is a multinational diversified producer of premium specialty papers and plastic nettings headquartered in the United States of America. The Company manufactures and sells paper and reconstituted tobacco products to the tobacco industry as well as specialized paper products for use in other applications. We manufacture lightweight specialty papers, which are used in manufacturing ventilated cigarettes, and banded papers for the production of lower ignition propensity, or LIP, cigarettes and are the leading independent producer of RTL used in producing blended cigarettes. We also manufacture resin-based plastic netting through an extrusion process, as well as certain meltblown products and machined plastic core tubes.

Our primary products sold to the tobacco industry include cigarette, plug wrap and base tipping papers, or Cigarette Papers, used to wrap various parts of a cigarette and reconstituted tobacco leaf, or RTL, which is used as a blend with virgin tobacco in cigarettes, reconstituted tobacco wrappers and binders for cigars. These products are sold directly to the major tobacco companies or their designated converters in the Americas, Europe, Asia and elsewhere. Our non-tobacco industry products are a diverse mix of products that includes low volume, high-value engineered papers as well as commodity paper grades produced to maximize our machine utilization. In December 2013, we acquired DelStar, Inc. ("DelStar"), a manufacturer of plastic netting and other resin-based products focused on the filtration and medical markets. In December 2014, we acquired certain assets from Pronamic Industries, Inc., or Pronamic, and from Smith & Nephew's, or SNN, Advanced Wound Management Division which have been incorporated into our Filtration operating segment.

We conduct business in over 90 countries and operate 16 production locations worldwide, with facilities in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Luxembourg, Russia, Brazil, China and Poland. We also have a 50% equity interest in two joint ventures in China. The first, China Tobacco Mauduit (Jiangmen) Paper Industry Ltd., or CTM, produces cigarette and porous plug wrap papers and the second, which began operations in the third quarter of 2014, China Tobacco Schweitzer (Yunnan) Reconstituted Tobacco Co. Ltd., or CTS, which produces RTL.

As used in this 2014 Annual Report on Form 10-K, unless the context indicates otherwise, references to "we," "us," "our," "SWM," "Schweitzer-Mauduit" or similar terms include Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.