Metso delivers world's largest drum pulper to Propapier in Germany

HORSTRING, Germany, Aug. 12, 2009 (Press Release) - "Progress according to plan" is the motto of the project team from Propapier PM2 GmbH in Eisenhüttenstadt in Eastern Germany. In addition, Jürgen Heindl, CEO of the holding company Progroup AG, applies strict control to ensure that all project work at the construction site proceeds within the designated deadline and cost plan. After all, this is about the construction of the largest paper mill for containerboard in Germany. On 6 August, 2009, the Finnish machine manufacturer Metso delivered the world's largest waste paper processing drum to Eisenhüttenstadt. On 23 July 2009, the parts of the drum, consisting of three enormous units with a length of 20 metres, were brought from Parkano in Finland to the Finnish harbour Mäntyluoto using a special HGV transporter. The weights of the three parts of the drum are 105 tonnes, 102 tonnes and 64 tonnes, respectively. Using the MS Magda towboat, the spectacular transport unit was shipped to the Polish harbour Świnoujście, where on 27 July 2009, it was reloaded onto a barge, which then took the striking load along the Oder River to the industrial port of Eisenhüttenstadt. On 6 August 2009, the drum parts were transported piece by piece to the construction site of Propapier PM2 GmbH with a special HGV transporter and police protection.

The drum pulper is not only a "feast for the eyes", with its technical aspects it also represents a superlative in terms of content. The drum is currently the largest produced and delivered dissolving unit both in terms of production capacity and dimension. The task of the drum pulper is to dissolve the recycled waste pulp for use in paper production on the paper machine. The drum pulper is an energy-efficient tool for dissolving waste paper fibres for their repeat processing and separating from the coarse rejects.

The drum pulper delivered to Propapier is 60 metres long and has a diameter of 5 metres. The length of the dissolving section is around 40 metres and the perforated screen unit is around 20 metres long. The drum alone weighs 270 tonnes, whilst during its actual operation, approximately the same amount of stock (waste paper fibres) will be in the pulper. With the installation of the first large machine part, the paper machine with 10.1m working width and a working speed of 1,800m/minute will produce testliner and corrugating medium types of containerboard in weights of 70-130 g/m². The annual capacity is 650,000 tonnes of containerboard. The paper mill is being constructed within an area covering 350,000 m² and will itself take up 70,000 m² from an investment totalling euro 400 million.

In the near future, 175 direct and 500 indirect jobs will be created. The paper mill investment is an example of environmentally friendly production and the sustainable usage of resources, and represents the highest level of current paper technology and process reliability achieved by management. With these parameters, Propapier PM2 GmbH in Germany, currently the largest factory for containerboard, brings innovative paper production to the centre of attention.