MILL OPERATIONS

To upgrade the drive on the No. 1 paper machine at its Sinking Springs, Pa., mill, Reading Paper has contracted with the Lawton Co. for the design and manufacture of new taper cone pulleys.

International Paper's Thilmany Paper in Kaukauna, Wis., has purchased an Acrowood Model 4272 DiamondRoll screen for fines removal from pulp chips. This screen will be added to an existing screening system as a replacement for a small IFO disc screen.

To upgrade the speed potential of the paper machine at its City of Industry, Calif., mill, Sonoco Products has contracted with the Lawton Co. for the design and manufacture of new taper cone pulleys.

Buckeye Florida, a 1,200 tpd softwood kraft mill in Perry, Fla., has commissioned a Vincent screw press. The VP-16 is used for dewatering knots and shives. This will relieve landfill load and groundwater contamination, while creating a salable byproduct. In addition, a sidehill screen thickens the flow ahead of the press.

Bowater's bleached kraft mill in Catawba, S.C., will be installing a two-line chip thickness screening system by Acrowood prior to its 10 batch digesters. Each of the two screening lines will include a disc scalper, two Model 50144 DiamondRoll primary thickness screens placed one after another, a Model 7222 air density separator to process the overthick chips before they are sent into a Model 3672 chip cracker, and a 90108 DiamondRoll fines screen fit with the Raised Roll feature to process the fines.

To overcome high pins loss, Weyerhaeuser's Grand Prairie, Alta., mill is installing a 5060 Acrowood DiamondRoll screen after a series of rotary screens. The mill has been losing pins through its rotary screens, especially during harsh winters when poor chip conditions can result in plugging.

Glassine Canada has contracted with the Lawton Co. for the supply of new paper machine gearing for the No. 2 paper machine at its Quebec City, Que., mill.

International Paper has selected Voith Sulzer to provide two kraft mill screening systems for its Riegelwood, N.C., mill. Each screening system includes primary, secondary, and tertiary Bird EcoScreens, plus a Rejectsorter and L-5 cleaner bank.

For the No. 1 paper machine at its Menasha, Wis., mill, U.S. Paper Mills has ordered dryer heads from the Lawton Co. Lawton will design, cast, machine, and ASME code the 42 in. dia heads for 75 psi operating pressure.

Champion International Corp. has announced that it will make the Plantwide Information System (PI) software from OSI available throughout all its North American pulp and paper mills. The PI system is a client/server, Windows-based software program designed to fully automate the collection, storage, and presentation of manufacturing plant data and information.

Rock Tenn Co., Macon, Ga., has purchased two gas infrared coating drying systems from Marsden Inc. The 9-row and 5-row systems are providing 100% IR drying for silicone and PVA coatings.

Fox River Paper has contracted with the Lawton Co. for evaluation of drive conditions on the No. 14 paper machine at its Ripon, Calif., mill. Lawton will install the DriveVision drive monitoring system on the paper machine to evaluate operating conditions in the drive system.

For Great Northern Paper in East Millinocket, Maine, Bowater Inc. has ordered a flotation deinking system from Voith Sulzer. The flotation system consists of one mixing cell, five primary cells, and one secondary cell. All are Voith Sulzer's new EcoCell design.

To supply new gearing for the paper machine at its Montreal, Que., mill, Kruger Inc. has contracted with the Lawton Co. The gearing is part of a paper machine upgrade to improve quality and productivity.

Paperboard Industries has contracted with the Lawton Co. for the manufacture and supply of new gearing for the dryer section on the paper machine at its Toronto, Ont., mill. Paperboard Industries has also ordered a dryer head for the same paper machine. Lawton will design, cast, and ASME code the 60-in.-dia. ductile iron dryer head for 100 psi operating pressure.

Brewton Chips, Hodge, La., has purchased a 116 in. 12 knife, horizontal feed, bottom discharge Acrowood chipper. It is complete with stainless steel slot and end liners and includes a new side access spout door for easy access to the side anvil.

Mead Paper Co. has announced that it will make the Plantwide Information System (PI) software from OSI available throughout all its North American pulp and paper mills. The PI system is a client/server, Windows-based software program designed to fully automate the collection, storage, and presentation of manufacturing plant data and information.

A new recovery boiler at Willamette Industries' Hawesville, Ky., mill has been successfully hydrotested as scheduled. Willamette placed the order with Ahlstrom in November 1995, and pressure part erection began in December 1996. The Ahlstrom boiler, with a design capacity of 2.7 million tons of dry solids/day, is being erected by the company's construction division-Kamtech Inc. It is scheduled to begin firing black liquor in October 1997.

International Paper has contracted with the Lawton Co. for new dryer heads and refurbishing of dryers for the No. 2 paper machine at its Nicolet mill in De Pere, Wis. Lawton will disassemble the dryers, sugar-blast clean the shells, install new dryer heads, and hydrostatically test the new assemblies at twice the rated pressure.

For improvements to its water management program that have conserved water and reduced waste, Inland Paperboard and Packaging, Newark, Calif., has received a return on environment (ROE) partnership award from BetzDearborn. In a joint project with BetzDearborn, changes were made to optimize the mill's polymer and biocide treatment programs. As a result, improvements in machine runnability and retention made it possible for the mill to close its water loop, reducing mill effluent from 16,235 gpd to only 450 gpd. The improvements have also resulted in a net savings for Inland of more than $1 million annually from lower chemical and water costs, increased productivity, and reduced sewer charges.

For the dryer sections of the No. 1 paper machine at its Chihuahua, Mexico, mill, Papelera de Chihuahua has ordered new gearing from the Lawton Co. The order is a result of an in-depth evaluation performed by Lawton during the spring outage.

The Fasson Roll Div. of Avery Dennison, a manufacturer of coated papers, films, and foils, has placed a $1.6 million order with Rockwell Automation. The order includes a coordinated drive system for Avery Dennison's coating/laminating machines in a new converting facility in Gotha, Germany.

Guanhao Paper Industry Co. Ltd. has purchased a specialty paper manufacturing line from Valmet for its Zhanjiang mill in southeastern China. The paper machine will produce NCR base paper, precoated thermal base paper, and other specialty grades. The order comprises a complete line from headbox to winder. Apart from other equipment, the machine features a dilution controlled SymFlo headbox and SymSizer size press. The wire width of the paper machine is 150 in., and the construction speed is 3,280 fpm. The capacity will be 150 tpd, and delivery will occur in April 1998.

Oji Paper Co. Ltd. has ordered a complete tissue machine from Valmet for its new Tomioka tissue mill on Shikoku Island. The tissue machine of Periformer Crescent type, including the new SymFlo headbox, will be the largest and fastest in Japan with a paper width of more than 236 in. and a design speed of 6,560 fpm. The machine will produce more than 50,000 tpy of sanitary tissue, mainly from primary fibers.

Tohoku Seishi, a kraft mill in Akita, Japan, is installing an Acrowood chip thickness screening system before its continuous digester to process Eucalyptus chips. All portions of the system that come into contact with the chips are either composed of or clad by stainless steel to resist corrosion by the acidic Eucalyptus resin.