Thriving in a harsh environment

By Umut Urkun

BRUSSELS, Nov. 28, 2011 (RISI) - The highly competitive nature of the paper and pulp industry drives continuous improvements in mill productivity, which means increased requirements for equipment and lubricant reliability. Mills are moving to higher speeds, reaching more than 100 km/hr, with increased paper widths and steam temperatures that may be in excess of 200°C. Additionally, the evolution of gearboxes and bearings to more sophisticated designs and technologies, including the movement to a combined circulation system, brings new challenges to lubricants, which need to satisfy the demands of multiple system components.

Mobil Industrial Lubricants are designed to provide outstanding wear protection, corrosion prevention, keep-clean performance, and water tolerance to meet the aggressive environments found in paper manufacturing

Proven in the field

ExxonMobil Lubricants and Specialities' range of Mobil-branded, premium mineral and advanced synthetic oils have a proven track record of delivering significant performance and productivity benefits to paper and pulp organisations.

For example, a paper plant in Germany was recently looking to improve the lubrication of its calender, which was experiencing problems including shoe and roll shell wear, brown deposits on the shoe and stick-slip during operation. Following an investigation by ExxonMobil Lubricants and Specialities' engineers, it was found that the lubricant in use was providing inadequate protection at high operating temperatures, inefficient lubrication of the shoes, as well as high-energy consumption through excessive boundary lubrication.

To rectify the problems, ExxonMobil Lubricants and Specialities recommended the use of the gear and bearing oil Mobil SHC 629. As well as providing outstanding service in terms of equipment protection, the oil also has low traction coefficients, which help to optimize the right level of boundary lubrication. The introduction of this product eliminated the need to change the roll and associated maintenance cost as well as achieving a 5% energy saving* during operation. In total, this represented a saving to the company of approximately €19,000/yr.

In a second example, a paper plant in Turkey has achieved significant benefits by upgrading the hydraulic oil in its paper machine's hydraulic unit to Mobil DTE 10 Excel, a hydraulic oil engineered to help increase productivity, reduce unscheduled downtime and improve the energy efficiency of hydraulic applications.

Following joint studies carried out by ExxonMobil Lubricants and Specialities engineers and the plant maintenance team, a decision was made to move to Mobil DTE 10 Excel oil to increase the efficiency of the hydraulic pump. Energy measurements had shown that with the previous oil at 73 bar pressure, the hydraulic system was demanding 4.5 kW power. Following the move to Mobil DTE 10 Excel, the energy analyser found that the power demand at 73 bar was 4 kW, equating to an energy saving of approximately 11% *.

As well as multi-sector industrial products such as the aforementioned oils, ExxonMobil offers a range of oils which have been specifically engineered for the pulp and paper industry. The Mobil SHC PM Series are synthetic circulation oils for dryer sections and calender applications, and Mobil Paper Machine Oil S Series are synthetic lubricants specifically designed for demanding industrial paper machine circulating systems.

To be continued ... Click here to read Part II