HEIDENHEIM, Germany,
Aug. 18, 2009
(Press Release) -
St. Regis PM 6 situated at Kemsley, Kent, United Kingdom had a successful start- up with clothing from Voith Paper after being rebuilt to produce lightweight fluting and liner grades.
The machine manufactures the UK's only domestically produced lightweight packaging paper. Branded K-light, this high quality 100% recycled paper is made on a converted fine paper machine employing the latest technologies. The outcome of all the heavyweight investment in technology is a lightweight paper which is strong and consistent. Since its launch in January 2009, K-light has been proving itself a great success, running smoothly and reliably on corrugators throughout the country.
"A major contributor to the high quality of this new lightweight paper is the advanced technologies supplied by Voith Paper," stated the Operations Manager at Kemsley Mill.
A new Voith Paper stock preparation 'E Line' makes K-light's stock preparation process one of the most technically advanced in Europe. Voith Paper also supplied the clothing for the press and dryer sections as well as two QualiFlex grooved sleeves for the new shoe press and DuoCleaner Express dryer cleaning units.
The machine started with a full set of Voith MultiFlex V3 Seam press fabrics. Since start-up, no design changes have been made to the replacement fabrics, as all the performance requirements were met during the commissioning phase. St Regis also commissioned Voith to install its fabrics on all the drying units. The superb combination of MultiTech PR dryer fabrics and DuoCleaner Express on the new single tier positions has resulted in high fabric permeability retention.
K-light's successful launch is a cause for considerable satisfaction at St Regis, which has invested over £100 million in the new K-light facilities at Kemsley Mill. The annual production of 260,000 tonnes could not have come at a better time as the costs of imported lightweight papers have risen due to the sterling exchange rate.
