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Alliance's advanced paper machine targets inserts and catalogs and complements the company's investments in SC-B grades at Dolbeau

By Harold M. Cody, Senior Editor

Alliance Steps Up to SC-A Grades With No. 4 Line at Donnacona Mill

Alliance's advanced paper machine targets inserts and catalogs and complements the company's investments in SC-B grades at Dolbeau By Harold M. Cody, Senior Editor

Alliance Steps Up to SC-A Grades With No. 4 Line at Donnacona Mill Alliance Forest Products recently completed the largest portion of an ongoing capital investment program that is completely transforming the company's mill assets in North America. On Oct. 22, 2000, the first paper came off Alliance's new No. 4 paper machine at the Donnacona, Que., mill. The C$275 million project is a key to positioning the company to profit from an upgraded line of value-added printing and writing papers.

Jumbo reels are slit and rewound using a Winbelt winder.

Donnacona is now positioned as a low cost producer of Supercalendered-A (SC-A) and Supercalendered-B (SC-B) grades, employing one of the most advanced papermaking lines in the world. At the center of all this new technology is an eight-roll on-machine calender, capable of producing what the company believes will be one of the industry's best SC-A sheets.

Alliance's work at Donnacona follows a similar upgrade to its Dolbeau mill (Pulp & Paper, August 2000, p. 43). The new machine at Dolbeau, with two two-roll calenders, will focus on SC-B offset grades. At Donnacona the target is mainly higher quality SC-A grades, including rotogravure grades.

The strategy's final leg will transform the Coosa Pines, Ala., mill, acquired in 1997, into a competitive low-cost producer of 100% recycled newsprint. This will entail shutting down the hardwood kraft and mechanical pulp mills and raising recycled pulp capacity to 460,000 mtpy. Fluff pulp will continue to be produced under a long-term contract with Kimberly Clark. Newsprint production will be concentrated at Coosa Pines, while value-added printing paper production is shifted to the company's northern mills.

No. 4 paper machine has North America's first DuoFormer TQ former and world's first MasterJet G headox.

SHOW ME THE MONEY. The overall strategy is a text-book example of how to turn around a traditional paper company struggling with old equipment and old assets. Based on the success at Dolbeau and early indications that Donnacona will perform as expected, the company is well positioned for the future.

"The timing of the startup couldn't have been better," notes Alliance CEO Pierre Monahan. "The outlook is good for 2001 with a balanced market, although some capacity growth will occur near the end of the year. The new machine's startup is on target, and we're very pleased with it."

Addressing the criticism leveled at the industry for any type of capital investment, Monahan noted, "As a resource industry, it's impossible to only look short term, despite the fact investors only want that. You can't plan and succeed that way. We've shown we are responsible with our shareholder money and that we can make tough decisions that we know will pay off. We've quadrupled our sales since 1994, and margins are coming back, so shareholders will appreciate it."

"We've been quiet the last couple of years," he continues, "but we're now ready to go back to our shareholders and tell them we've finished our capital program, as outlined to them in our strategy. Now it's time to deliver value to the shareholders from these investments. Once Coosa Pines is done it will really be exciting for us. A year ago we had a lot of challenges and pressures-to make this all work-but the big pieces are behind us. Next year should really be exciting as cash flow will be strong. With machine speedups at Coosa Pines to be put in place, and with our low-cost northern mills up to speed, we should really generate big dollars by 2003."

Monahan also notes that the company is shifting from an investment mode to merger and acquisition mode, "to seek out the best return for our shareholders. We're keeping our eyes open, and it could mean a merger or an acquisition," he says. Monahan goes on to note that the biggest current challenge for the company is the lumber side of the business. Being fully integrated, the company is somewhat shielded from the downside there, but challenges remain owing to weak housing markets and increased global competition.

The work at Coosa Pines will transform that mill into a cost-competitive newsprint facility. When they purchased the mill, Alliance knew it was a high-cost producer but there was a lot of potential. Monahan says, "We bought it for C$550/ton of capacity, and even with the investments we are making, it will still be under C$1,000/ton (taking into account the sale of timberlands bought with the mill). It will be a low-cost producer of recycled newsprint, and fluff pulp is a good business." With completion of the investment program, Alliance will be able to leverage its range of grades across its customer base. It will be able to supply customers the grade desired, from a less expensive sheet all the way up to a top-of-the-line SC-A grade. This is a key part of its strategy.

DONNACONA'S NO. 4. Donnacona now boasts one of the newest, most modern uncoated groundwood machines in the industry. From a cost standpoint, it is on the lower (at least first third) end of the cost curve and only a few dollars from the lowest cost, according to industry estimates. The C$275 million project included the new machine, a new winder, a complete new stock prep system for the machine, a new roll handling system, a new wrapping line, and a new machine building.

The latest technology in forming, pressing, and finishing are part of the new line, with the centerpiece being the use of an online calender to produce SC-B and SC-A grades. The No. 4 paper machine is designed to run at 4,000 fpm (1,220 mpm) on a 33 lb/3,300-ft2 (48.8 gsm) sheet. The machine has a reel trim of 234 in. (5.95 m), and an output of 425 mtpd. The major suppliers for the projects are listed in Table 1.

The wet end of the machine uses Voith's DuoFormer TQ gap former with a Masterjet G headbox with Module-Jet dilution control, the first in the world. It's the first TQ gap former in Canada, which is a roll and blade former design. It has a large diameter forming roll, a single flat box ahead of the couch, and both fabrics wrap the couch. In addition, a high vacuum box follows the couch roll. All of these are designed to handle a sheet with a high filler loading, and thus the need to remove a lot of water while retaining the clay filler well dispersed in the "Z" direction. The mill's clay is supplied by Imerys.

The press section is a DuoCentri press with a Nipcoflex shoe press in the third position. The center press roll is fitted with Thermo-AES double doctor blades. The press has a Voith Module Steam steambox, controlled by a Voith ProfilMatic computer that gets moisture profile data from an ABB scanner.

North America's first online Janus calender will produce top of the line SC-A rotogravure grades.

The first three dryer sections are a Duorun concept, followed by three conventional sections. The steam and condensate system is an innovative, first of its kind system supplied by Johnson Corp. It has its own PLCs and set of control screens. The system uses advanced controls to increase sheet quality, eliminate flooding, and reduce energy consumption. The TechDry Pro system uses drying curves for specific grades of paper to optimize drying. The dryers have PT steam joints and cantilever stationary siphons, allowing the machine to operate with low differential pressures and blow through steam flows.

EIGHT-ROLL ONLINE CALENDER. Several key components work together to provide the mill with the capability of making one of the highest quality sheets in the industry. A unique, high quality mechanical pulp and the new forming system combine to produce a sheet of very high quality. However, the centerpiece technology is an online Voith Janus multiple roll calender, the first online Janus unit in North America. Alliance was convinced of its capability owing to its success on two similar machines in Europe (Lang's Ettringen mill and Haindl's Schongau facility). Once running SC-A grades, it will be the fastest machine in the world using an online calender largely dedicated to SCA production.

The calender is an eight-roll unit with top and bottom Nipco rolls. Maximum loading is 550 kN/m. Thermo roll heating is done with oil using a gas burner to heat the fluid, for a maximum temperature of 235ƒ C. It can be run as a single-nip, tandem, or full stack modes. A Voith Caltronic system imports caliper profile data from the machine scanner and controls caliper using a fuzzy logic algorithm. Output is sent to the Nipco system that converts the linear loading profile in zone and piston pressures. VIB gloss profilers provide gloss base control and profiling. The potential of the system has already begun to emerge. "We've run SC-B grades that have properties almost up to SC-A standards as part of our startup and learning curve, and we've accomplished this using only 420 kN/m of loading and at only 210ƒ C," according to Gerard Renaud, v.p., operations, pulp and paper, for Alliance.

Jumbo machine reels are produced by a Voith Sirius reel, which has a center wind assist throughout the roll building process. Jumbo rolls are processed by a Valmet Winbelt winder, which ejects to a new roll handling system that transfers rolls to the new Lamb roll wrapping line. An ABB distributed control system (DCS) controls the No. 4 machine, while an ABB quality control system (QCS) features a main scanner ahead of the reel and a second scanner ahead of the Janus calender for moisture profile measurement.

A final stage of the upgrade at Donnacona will come online shortly with the startup of a new C$12 million peroxide bleach plant. An existing peroxide line can't produce enough to satisfy the needs for both machines on higher brightness grades, i.e. the 68 ISO brightness standard for SC-A in the industry.

The mill's other line, the 89,000-mtpy No. 3 paper machine, concentrates on uncoated groundwood book grades. The company is a major supplier to the paperback and trade book markets. Donnacona concentrates on higher brightness book grades while a machine at Dolbeau produces lower brightness grades. The combined capacity of the two machines at Donnacona is 241,000 mtpy. Two old machines were shut down with the startup of No. 4.

FIBER IS THE KEY. The most advanced papermaking technology available is obviously critical to producing high quality papers. However, the ability to produce SC-A and SC-B grades as good as or better than their competitors is also due to an old-time papermaking concept: fiber quality.

In the case of both Donnacona and Dolbeau, part of the company's overall strategy has been to take advantage of the northern black spruce that forms the furnish for the mills. Spruce is ideally designed to produce SC grades and this, in addition to some innovative processing technology, provides the mill with the ability to make a superior product. About two-thirds of the chips are provided by Alliance plants and the remainder from other sawmills in Quebec. By early this year, the mill plans to be using black spruce for about 90% of its fiber needs.

Thermomechanical pulp (TMP) for the new mach-ine is produced by a system installed in the 1980s. However, once the fibers come from the TMP mill, a state-of-the-art stock prep system processes the fibers using fractionation to separate the long and short fiber portions. This allows the long fibers to receive additional refining energy, while the short fiber line receives less refining. The TMP line produces 530 mtpd, which in some grades will be blended with kraft pulp as necessary.

The long fiber feed from the fractionator is processed by Andritz refiners. The long and short fibers then go through Metso Conflo refiners. "This approach," notes Renaud, "produces a better pulp than alternate systems used by some mills, which often use a third stage high-consistency refiner. This provides strength and is a key behind the low kraft level we run."

COST-COMPETITIVENESS. Donnacona is one of the most cost-competitive operations in the industry on both SC-A and SC-B grades, specifically due to such factors as energy savings, manpower savings, and low furnish costs. Energy use per ton is aided by the new press section, which delivers a dry sheet into the dryer section (see sidebar).

Manpower savings-with only six employees running the machine-are due to the level of automation and the use of online calendering (no supercalender staff is needed). The mill used to have 376 employees for three machines, equivalent to 4.0 manhours/ton of production. It now has 335 employees for two machines, or 2.9 manhours/ton. The mill is organized for efficiency as well, with three levels of supervision and decentralized maintenance. It uses semi-autonomous teams for production and maintenance.

To move the mill from commodity newsprint production on circa-1920s technology to making a sheet with cutting-edge technology and 20% clay means a lot of changes for union and staff personnel. "As part of the change, employees that once moved from machine to machine based on seniority-they zig zagged-now stay on the same shift team and only work on one machine," according to Renaud. "This team concept is focused on the customer and allows each member to develop the skills needed."

The operation is designed to minimize the use of expensive kraft pulp. "At a cost of about C$1,000/ton for softwood kraft pulp, every 1% savings in kraft lowers costs C$7/ton," says Renaud. While many SC-B mills use 7% to 15% kraft pulp in their sheet, and about 15% to 20% clay, Alliance is able to produce SC-B grades with low kraft pulp. On SC-A grades, a similar advantage is anticipated. Also, while kraft is added for strength, the downside is that it tends to hurt opacity and smoothness. Obviously, if a competitive mill is running 20% kraft and Donnacona can go with much less kraft, the savings per ton are large.

RETAIL INSERTS AND CATALOG MARKETS. With the startup of Alliance's new line at Donnacona, and the earlier startup of its SC-B machine at Dolbeau, the North American market for SC grades has changed dramatically. Alliance will soon be able to produce groundwood grades, including recycled newsprint, book grades, SC-C, SC-B, and SC-A grades. The ultimate goal for the No. 4 paper machine at Donnacona is to make SC-A. The plan for the machine, which is on track, was to start on newsprint then run SC-C and SC-B grades before moving up to SC-A. The machine has made a sheet with up to 21% ash and close to SC-A gloss levels.

"The goal for both Donnacona and Dolbeau is to produce the best sheets in the industry across the entire SC range," says senior v.p., sales and marketing Kevin Wassil. "Our key markets are retail inserts and catalogs. Retailers tend to move around a lot-shifting grades to produce an advertising image within their budget constraints. Catalogs are another key market, and we can offer an ultra-light sheet down to 26 lb that provides postal savings, while offering opacity that is 4 to 5 points higher than competitive sheets, and with good bulk," Wassil says.

Donnacona is targeting the heat-set offset (HSO) and rotogravure markets, while Dolbeau concentrates solely on HSO. A key strategy for Alliance is to sell direct, according to Wassil. "In most cases we're selling direct to the end-user." Printability and runability are keys from a printer's standpoint. Printability relates to ink holdout, which in turn is related to smoothness and how closed the sheet is (porosity).