Voith wins first order for curtain coater used in carton board machine

HEIDENHEIM, Germany, Nov. 27, 2009 (Press Release) -

After many years of intensive process and product development, Voith Paper has won the first order for a curtain coater used for graphic paper coating in a board machine from a renowned producer of high-quality carton board grades.

This innovative process is thus used for the first time for coat applications beyond the field of specialty papers where the curtain coater has been successfully used for years to apply thermo-reactive or capsule coatings.

The predominant features of the process are

• perfect coverage and excellent printability
• optimal runnability and significant energy saving.

In this rebuild project, the existing air knife coater is replaced with a curtain coater, thus allowing to overcome the current speed limit and to substantially increase the coating solids content. In this particular case, the coat drying energy costs will almost be halved.

In addition, curtain coating ensures optimal coverage, permitting the use of more cost-effective coating pigments.

The operating window of the curtain coater was successfully widened thanks to efficient process development in the Voith Paper PTC. Here, coating colours are analyzed, optimized, perfectly treated and deaerated for the process, and sample rolls can be coated under practical conditions.