AUSTRIA
SCA TO REBUILD PM9 AT ORTMANN

SCA has chosen PMT Italia as main supplier for a major rebuild of PM9 at its Ortmann mill in Austria. The existing original Beloit tissue machine (suction breast roll technology, 3500 mm trim at reel) will be rebuilt to a crescent former configuration. Aim of the rebuild is to increase the speed of the machine to 1700 m/min, to increase capacity to about 38,000 tons/yr, and to improve the quality of the tissue produced maintaining the existing high efficiency level. The start up is foreseen for the beginning of 2009.

Scope of supply includes a new hydraulic cantilevered headbox (future two layers), a five-roll cantilevered crescent former, rebuild of the felt run with a new design for felt changes, rebuild of the flume & channel, and a new stock approach flow system. Moreover the existing stock preparation will be integrated with the supply of new refiners.

The turnkey order includes also the supply of auxiliary components (mechanical drives, pumps, valves, instrumentation, mist removal system, controls) , drives and AC motors as well as the related services (detailed engineering, mechanical erection, piping supply and erection).

BELARUS
SPARTAK CONFIRMS PM PLANS
(NEWS BY RISI)

Spartak Paper Mill has revealed details of an investment plan for 2008-2010 at its plant in Shklov, Belarus.

Stage 1 includes an upgrade of its packaging board machine and the addition of two cogeneration units with a total capacity of 3.8 MW. The new equipment is expected to come on stream in the fourth quarter of 2009, and will secure energy supply for the plant. Apart from this, a new steam boiler has been ordered from a Russian manufacturer to replace one of the three boilers at the mill.

Furthermore, Spartak will build a sewage disposal plant. Until now, the firm has been using the sewage disposal facility of Shklov town.

During the second stage of the project, Spartak will install a tissue machine and a converting line to produce toilet paper and napkins at the Shklov plant. It is not clear yet, whether the firm will buy a new or a secondhand machine. The planned capacity of the PM is 30-50 tons/day.

One third of the PM’s output will be converted at the site, while the rest will be exported, mainly to Russia. According to a spokesman at the plant, these plans might be pushed back if Spartak fails to secure funding from the government. “The mill cannot cover project costs from its own funds. And, if we have to take a loan, we will inevitably postpone the purchase of the tissue production line,” he added. The estimated cost of the tissue machine and the converting line is $20 million.

FRANCE
RENOVA SMART CAR IN PARIS

WWF and other environmental groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have repeatedly criticized the forest conversion work by APP in Sumatra, saying that the land clearing is illegal and poses a threat to the habitat of endangered elephants, tigers and orangutans. APP has previously stated that a licence for clearing land for the development of an access road to its concessions in the Bukit Tigapuluh area of the island's Jambi province had been granted by the authorities, meaning therefore that the work was legal.

APP representatives were not available for comment.

TROUBLE 'DOWN UNDER'
APP is also facing a debacle in Australia, as an NGO is putting pressure on shareholders of a major retailer to end its relationship with APP.

The Wake Up Woolworths campaign has sent out letters to hundreds of shareholders of the supermarket giant, urging them to write to Woolworths asking it to terminate its relationship with APP, which supplies its 'Select' brand tissue products.

"Woolworths shareholders are being asked to take real action to end Woolworths' relationship with APP, the world's least sustainable pulp and paper company," said the campaign's spokesman Tim Woods. The campaign is funded mainly by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union. Woods served as the secretary of the union's Pulp & Paper Workers' branch until March this year. He said that the campaign is also about Australian jobs, which are under threat because of Woolworths' sourcing of product from overseas suppliers. "Instead of doing the right thing and dumping APP, Woolworths continues to stock the products under its own heavily promoted Select brand label," Woods added.

Last year, Woolworths pulled a range of APP-sourced tissue products from its shelves due to allegations that the packaging contained misleading environmental claims, only to return them weeks later without the claims. Woolworths said it remained under contractual obligations with its suppliers, but that changes are forthcoming to address issues such as this. "The environmental labeling claim which sparked the controversy has been removed from all packaging. We are currently working on significant longer term changes to our paper sourcing arrangements to address environmental concerns, but these are confidential at the present time," a Woolworths spokesperson told RISI.

However, Woods said Woolworths should immediately cut ties with APP, as did two USbased office supplies retailers: Staples and Office Depot.

Staples ended its 11-year relationship with APP last year due to environmental concerns, while Office Depot severed ties with the group in 2004.

"This commitment was reiterated in 2006 and Office Depot continues to stand by its policy by removing APP fiber if discovered in its supply chain," the company said in a statement

GERMANY
FRIPA STARTS NEW MACHINE IN MILTENBERG

In March family company Fripa started up the world’s first PrimeLineCOMPACT installation at its mill in Miltenberg, according to machine supplier Andritz. The new 2.75 m trim machine, PM6, will run at up to 2000 m/min making about 30,000 tons/yr of twolayer tissue. It is equipped with a single press and a 4.88 m diameter yankee.

The Fripa turnkey package includes the stock preparation system ShortFlow™ COMPACT, as well as state-of-the art Andritz drying technology.

Shortly after the initial start-up, the machine was changed over to continuous operation and within a few days a speed of 1800 m/min was reached while producing tissue of super-soft quality. During the whole start-up phase only about 5 tons of rejects were generated.

ITALY
MC TISSUE STARTS UP NEW PM IN LUCCA

MC Tissue has successfully started up a new 25,000 ton/yr Recard tissue machine at its mill in Lucca, Italy, according to the Italian supplier. The machine, which trims at 3.15 m, is a crescent former unit with an operating speed of 1,500 m/min.

NETHERLANDS
VAN HOUTUM PAPIER SUCCEEDS WITH NEW FABRICS

Van Houtum Papier attempted to increase production and quality by changing the clothing on the crescent former of its PM4 in Swalmen, the Netherlands. It also hoped to increase the speed of the machine, which it uses to produce quality paper towels. In cooperation with Voith Paper Fabrics.

The paper mill began a trial with TissueFlex V3. This type of press fabric, which has a coated non-woven structure worked into it, ensures less break and a high machine speed as well as lower energy consumption. And ultimately, because of this, productivity can be increased.

TissueFlex V3 contributed to significantly reducing the paper mill’s costs. The machine did not have to be shut down to clean the felt and it required only minimal treatment. The use of chemicals could also be reduced by around 50% per run.

Another positive result is that the felts are now cleaned under lower pressure. This consumes less water, lowers costs with regard to chemicals and increases production by four to five days.

Another important outcome was that the lifespan of the felt increased - by approximately 20% compared with previous products.

Using TissueFlex V3 made it possible to increase the speed over and above the typical tissue machine limit of 1,500 m/min. A new record of 1,550 m/min was achieved, with a basis weight of 16.5 g/m2. The tonnage produced increased by 16.2%.

The next step of this success story took place when TissueForm E and TissueFlex V3 were used together. With the tandem clothing, the machine speed increased by a further 4%. TissueForm E is a warp-bound triple layer forming fabric with a very fine surface structure. It has excellent dewatering properties and low fibre loss and is easy to clean. Little remoistening and hardly any water drag are further positive qualities.

What applies to the felt can also be said of the forming fabric: cleaning with less water and chemicals; a clear plus for the environment and Van Houtum Papier’s productivity. Houtum Papier was founded by the Van Houtum brothers in 1935. It has two tissue production sites in Swalmen, the Netherlands. The company produces 45,000 tons of paper towels and toilet paper per year. These products are produced exclusively on a recovered paper basis. They are then sold to major customers throughout Europe under the brand name “Satino”.

PORTUGAL
AMS-PAPER MILL TO ADD TISSUE MACHINE

AMS-Paper Mill and Converting, a newcomer to tissue production, has recently signed an agreement with Toscotec for the supply of a complete tissue plant to be installed in a greenfield site in Vila Velha de Ródão, Portugal. The start-up of this plant is foreseen for the second/third quarter of 2009.

The mill will produce both jumbo reels for local converters as well as finished products. The plant is designed to operate with virgin pulp and waste paper in order to provide the market with a wide range of high quality products including facial, napkins, toilet tissue and towels. AMS will be active both in the consumer market as well as in the AFH sector.

Toscotec’s “turn-key” project includes AHEAD 2.0 tissue machine with 15’ Steel yankee dryer, machine auxiliaries, stock preparation plant for virgin pulp, a three ply tissue rewinder with calender, electrification and control system.

Machine speed will be 2000 m/min with a net trim width of 2820 mm and a daily production of 110 tons.

AMS project is based on BAT (Best Available Technology) for tissue production and, thanks to the combination of a steel yankee dryer and TT large diameter suction press, it is strongly oriented towards energy savings.

“This project will establish our company as one of the most modern and flexible operations in Europe” said one of the shareholders of AMS “thanks to the full integration of the project and its extreme flexibility”.

SLOVAKIA
CERAMIC BLADES BOOST RUNTIME AT SHP CELEX

SHP Celex, a member of the Slovak Hygienic Paper group since 2002, has reported a strong increase in production time with new ceramic coating blades from BTG. The tests were carried out on PM2, which trims at 4.92 m and runs at up to 1300 m/min.

“In June 2007, SHP decided to test BTG’s Duroblade ceramic creping blades,” according to production planner Mario Blazevic and production engineer Boris Latinovic. “One of the obvious objectives was to reduce the number of blade changes and hence lower the related production loss. We estimated that 30 minutes of production could be gained daily by reducing the number of blade changes.

“The first tests with BTG Duroblade confirmed an estimated increase of β–coefficient (reduced production loss due to blade changes and paper threading) and also showed increased stability of the paper parameters.

“The average blade lifetime was 55 hours, during which 262 tons were produced (mean value). After introducing ceramic blades in standard production we recorded one exceptionally long lifetime; one blade ran 258 hours in total including one operation stop (first operating interval 136 hours, second operating interval 122 hours).

“As the reduction in creping blade changes eased work for the operating personnel, they found a special interest in creating optimal operation conditions for the ceramic blades. Thanks to BTG’s technical support this resulted in an average blade lifetime of 73 hours (meaning an average production of 350 tons per blade), which is more than satisfying.”

SWEDEN
METSO FINALISING PILOT MACHINE

Metso Paper is now finalising the rebuild of its TM1 pilot tissue machine at the Tissue Technology Center in Karlstad, Sweden. The purpose of the rebuild has been to adopt the machine to very promising new tissue making technologies for sustainable high end tissue production. The value of the investment is close to 3 million.

Metso Paper will demonstrate the new capability of its TM1 during the Tissue Making 2008 Conference in Karlstad on September 18 – 19 this year.

The Tissue Technology Centre is Metso Paper’s unique centre for research and development of tissue technology. The center is comprised of two complete tissue pilot machines and laboratory for conventional and through-air drying tissue. Lower energy consumption in the tissue making process and higher end product quality are the predominant driving forces of the center’s activities.

UKRAINE
DNEPROPETROVSK STARTS TISSUE PM
(NEWS BY RISI)

Dnepropetrovsk Paper Mill has started trial runs on a second-hand tissue machine at its plant in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. The 24,000 ton/yr machine, PM 5, was acquired from the Patras municipal authorities in Greece in 2003. It has a reel width of 3.2 m and will use 100% recovered paper as furnish. The firm is also installing a deinking line to supply fibre for the machine. Dnepropetrovsk Paper Mill is new to the tissue market. The firm was to train its personnel to operate the machine during June. The PM's commercial startup was scheduled for July.

Dnepropetrovsk Paper Mill is also mulling over ordering a tissue converting line from the Italian equipment producer Fabio Perini. "In the Ukraine, it is economically sound to sell converted tissue rather than tissue base. Therefore, we will produce toilet paper, kitchen towels and napkins at the site," a spokesman commented.

The plant houses another two machines, PMs 1 and 2, which make around 30,000 tons/yr of paper and board in total.

UNITED KINGDOM
PM SPEED INCREASES DUE TO SOLARSOFT

A leading UK division of a global tissue manufacturer has raised machine speed by 100 m/min simply by changing roll covering. The company converted a standard rubber covered suction pressure roll with 19.8% open area to Voith's SolarSoft polyurethane cover with additional blind drilling, which has 31.76% open area. This change has immediately allowed a machine speed increase in excess of 100 m/min using standard machine settings.

This change is a major move forward. The standard rubber cover was replaced by a polyurethane. The tissue machine restarted without any problems. Without changing anything else on the paper machine the speed increased in excess of 100 m/min, which leads to a production increase up to 5 tons/day.

SolarSoft is the latest generation in polyurethane covers of the Voith Paper Rolls Solar series. It is specially developed for suction pressure and pressure rolls of tissue machines. The first results clearly show that the machine speed, output and felt life can be increased, as well as significant tissue quality improvements. Additionally, the high tear resistance and elasticity of SolarSoft provides a high operating safety and machine availability.

PAPERCHAIN LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE

PaperChain has launched a revised website. The organisation campaigns to encourage positive recovery methods which support the long term sustainability of the paper and board recycling industry. The site provides information on the requirements for efficient paper recycling, to ensure the full economic and environmental benefits can be achieved in line with the vision of Europe becoming a 'recycling society'.

The address is http://www.paperchainrecycling. org.uk/publications.php