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Finishing the year off with a flourish
Finishing suppliers have had a busy year in terms of new developments and product launches. On top of that, some large installations have been carried out in 2000, with several major startups in the European markets. Obviously, to cover each and every new product on the finishing scene would be a rather ambitious task, but the major developments from each supplier are rounded up in the following technology briefs.
Continual improvement
Valmet has made improvements to its finishing technology this year with the introduction of the company's Continuous Handling Solution. A high level of automation is used in the new system and integrated roll data exchange with the winder allows ID-barcode marking, cross-checking of measures versus roll data and presorting for grouping. In terms of improvements, Valmet claims that capacity is maximized because waiting time is minimized. With fewer hands-on tasks, the operator also has more time for process supervision and visual quality control.
One recent installation of Valmet's finishing equipment at UPM-Kymmene's Jämsänkoski mill in Finland, is touted as having set two new records after its startup in February this year. The papermaker's PM 5 produces 250,000 tonnes/yr of supercalendered rotograuvure papers in a basis weight range of 40-60 g/m= and is fitted with one WinRoll winder using Continuous Winding. As part of test runs in March, the high capacity winder was run at 3,000 m/min for several sets and in June produced a giant roll with a width of 4.4 m, a 1.5 m diameter and a weight of 10,000 kg.
Another important installation of Valmet's finishing system is at Haindl Papier in Augsburg, Germany. The 9.7 m wide lightweight coated (LWC) PM 3 includes two fully automatic WinRoll multi-station winders equipped with Continuous Winding and a WinRoll rewinder. A printing-house quality butt-joint splicer and full width web threading are also features of the WinRoll winders being used at Haindl.
Cutting edge
Valmet Converting launched a new range of CTS sheeters earlier this year and the first installation took place at Paper Coaters in New Zealand. Paul O'Brien, engineering manager at Paper Coaters, cites the machine's advantages as "the highest web knife-load available and a wider web width".
The CTS sheeter also has automatic sheet length and squaring as standard features. The company is also developing synchronous twin-knife sheeters. Valmet Converting is keeping the technical details under wraps, but the new equipment is scheduled to be launched in early 2001.
Steve Brimble, vice president of Valmet's Sheeters Business Unit, says the new twin-knife machine will incorporate many of the batch manufacturing techniques developed on the CTS range.
A new twist
Meanwhile, companies in North America have taken up new wrapping technology from Voith in the US. A new Twister unit is up and running at Madison Paper in Maine, while another is scheduled to start up at Great Northern's mill in Millinocket this month.
Compared to conventional wrappers, the new Twister uses a spiral wrapping system that utilizes only one size of wrapping paper regardless of width. This cuts down on installation space, maintenance, roll purchases and operators, according to the company.
The Twister has automatic control of the unwind angle and speed of the wrap feeder which winds the requested number of layers over the roll body. After spirally wrapping the roll, edge protection is wound separately with a uniform overlap of five feet. Crimping wheels then fold this overlap.
Voith Paper in Germany has also received an order for the Twister from Stora Enso's Kabel mill. The machine is designed for small and medium size paper rolls, as well as heavy, large size rolls with a width of up to 4,500 mm and a diameter of 1,500 mm.
Winding up
Staying in Germany, Jagenberg Papiertech- nik has developed a new generation of winders with elastomer coverings on the drums and rolls. The company claims that their two new types of covers - Multidrive and Jagflex - offer a range of advantages compared to conventional systems that use steel drums.
According to the supplier, the use of solid and cellular elastomers on winders has significantly improved winding results - producing a better end product at higher productivity levels with fewer winding flaws and less broke. Also, the coatings considerably reduce stress on the web and create numerous technological advantages.
The supplier has also secured a major order for its Vari-Top II machine from Cartiere Burgo in the past 12 months. The Italian papermaker will install two of these 9,800 mm wide units on its new machine at Verzuolo.
The standard specifications of the Vari-Top II include a maximum paper roll weight of 10 tonnes per winding station and a winder with a fully automatic web threading with integrated winding start. At the unwinding end, a fully automatic tambour-butt unit produces ready-for-sale splices.
A cut above
Another company looking toward the high volume papermakers, and office papers in particular, is ECH Will. The equipment manufacturer recently installed a 15-pocket sheeter at a mill in Germany, which it claims achieved a new world record of 610.4 tonnes over a 24 hour period.
In addition, ECH Will also supplied the world's second largest line in Russia with a 14-pocket sheeter. Connected to two fully automatic line wrapping systems, the sheeter achieved an output of 528.6 tons/day in a test run.
The supplier says that the growing trend among office paper producers is toward flexibility, ie small orders with a range of sizes. The dramatically increasing small office/home office market requires machines capable of fast size changeover and sheet counts ranging from six to 2,500 sheets, according to the company.
As a result, packaging is done in small ream counts and polypropylene ream wrapping and other packaging solutions are now commonly included in fully automated production lines, such as inline shrink wrapping and envelope packs of rainbow reams with five colors, according to ECH Will.
Arrestor development
Another new piece of equipment designed to deal with rapid format changes is Pasaban's High Speed Synchronous sheeter. The company says the new model was designed with three parameters in mind:
• overlapping at 350 m/min without marking
• increasing the cuts/min and transportation of short sheets at high speed, without 'clicking'
• capable of rapid size and format changes to meet the demands for smaller orders
Pasaban claims that new coatings, which are being used at mills to satisfy the needs of high quality printers, have led to problems of marking in the overlapping section prior to stacking in finishing departments and sheet converters. In trying to solve this problem, Pasaban has developed what it claims to be the first "arrestor overlap system". The problem of 'clicking', has been solved, according to Pasaban, by using a direct drive system in conjunction with a low inertia, heavy-duty carbon fiber drums.
To cope with the reduction in specific order sizes during the past few years, Pasaban has also developed its KDD sheeter with a very rapid size change facility. Pasaban has installed this new sheeter at a number of facilities, including Oji Papers' Fuji mill in Japan, Gruber & Weber in Germany and De Eendracht Board's mill in the Netherlands.
Flexible solution
Another company focusing on flexibility is Bellmar, which recently upgraded a soft nip calendar at Technocell's paper mill in Titisee-Neustadt, Germany. "The task was to modernize the existing calendar so it would provide a more flexible handling for the variety of different paper grades which are produced at the mill," says Erich Kollmar at Bellmar.
Technocell's mill produces a range of grades, which require a repositioning of rolls every time a major grade change takes place. Bellmar has installed lightweight paper guide rolls in CFK, so repositioning can be performed at a much faster rate with less manpower. A new handle reversing drive was also supplied to allow changes in direction of the nip run after changes at a "finger tip", according to Bellmar.
Paper can now be transferred over the upper nip roll for a guiding across the machine direction into the nip. The paper run is then led into the original path below the lower nip roll. "This process allows a rebuild of the calendar in less than six hours, compared to an earlier 16-20 hours for the same procedure," says Kollmar.
Swiss issues
Lamb Europe has been involved with one of the biggest startups in Europe this year. The company received an order from Perlen Papier in Switzerland for a new roll handling and wrapping system as part of the mill's PM 4 project. The new 150,000 tonne/yr lightweight coated and newsprint PM came on stream in September. With the new Lamb system, the newsprint rolls, with a width of 440-2,000 mm, a diameter of 850-1,300 mm and a maximum weight of 3,200 kg are separated on a sorting deck after the new winder and are transported by means of bar-type slat conveyors to the wrapping line. Before wrapping, the bar-code label on the roll face is checked and recorded with a bar-code reader. After this, the rolls are pushed into the centering station where they are weighed, measured and marked using an ink-jet.
Up in the air
Bielomatik has introduced a new concept for the inline processing of flexo-printing and cut-size products this year. According to the company, the P 32-02 cut-size line equipped with a flexo-printing unit opens up new fields of application and additional advantages for paper processors. The electronically controlled collection system permits small, precisely-counted reams while maintaining a high production capacity.
One of Bielomatik's new products for this year is the Air-gap system. The reject free pile change system is designed for folio sheeters and works with one overlapping unit on a single paper transport track. By altering the degree of overlapping and using carefully directed blown air, the company has succeeded in separating the overlapped paper flow without using any mechanical elements. This creates a gap, which can then be used for reject free pile change with single piler and non-stop pallet changer or tandem piler.
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