Operation Report: Cellynne’s fast start

Cellynne got off to a flying start with its new PM2 from Metso, making high-quality paper at design speed of 2000 m/min in 24 days, writes Ingemar Myrén

Performance was met and the guarantee tests became a formality. Contractual testing was concluded and signed off within four months of startup. How was such an outstanding start-up possible, given Cellynne’s short history in making tissue paper? On the customer’s part it is attitude and skill. The contribution by Metso Paper and Metso Automation is a delivery package that is woven together into a pre-tested, safe and stable tissue making system. In an excellent cooperating spirit, the people from Cellynne and Metso made this new benchmark in tissue machine start-ups. “This is the most successful start-up I have witnessed in my 30 years in the industry,” according to Mario R Maltais, COO and General Manager of Cellynne Corporation:. “This was all possible thanks to the combination of the professional services supplied by the Metso engineering and support group, the dedication of our paper mill management team and the hard work of our employees.” Coincidently Cellynne and Metso share the same ‘first’: Cellynne PM1, which was the company’s first tissue machine, was also Metso’s first Advantage DCT tissue machine delivered for start-up in 2006. PM1 proved to be an excellent in-house training plant for the new crew for PM2. Jerome Bareth was hired in January 2007 as a machine tender on PM1. In due time for the PM2 start-up Bareth was given the responsibility to hire and train the 18 new crew members. All but two had no previous experience of operating a paper machine. Bareth made an excellent job and as a machine superintendent he brought his crew over to the new machine. The mind-set and the attitude of the crew was expressed by Jeff Hammonds, Mill Manager: “I give you an example. These guys do not know that it is hard to run 6500 ft/min. Nobody has ever told them that it is hard. Jerome showed them: this goes 6500, for them it is normal. They do not think: This is not supposed to run at 6500!” The performance of PM1 and the trust built between Cellynne and Metso put Metso as the preferred supplier for PM2. A repeat order makes life easier and saves time and money for both the customer and the supplier. Time for learning the equipment and processes is shortened and costs for engineering and spare parts are lower. Continuing business also promotes information flow about the customer’s needs as well as the supplier’s improved technology and new innovations.   Advantage DCT Metso designed the Advantage DCT-as a response to the increasing market surge for high quality dry crepe tissue. For many years the company has been a leader in TAD and crescent former dry crepe machines but time does not stand still. Anders Björn, President at Metso Paper in Karlstad, recalls: “There were quite clear indications that the number of TAD-projects should decline in the next few years so means and measures had to be taken.” Sharply increasing its share of the dry crepe machine market was a big challenge. Says Björn: “Taking into account the fierce competition, which had been mounting rapidly on Crescent former machines, the answer came rather quickly so we made a set of external and internal goals. Adding good value to our customers. Machinery being reliable and very easy to operate. Excellent product quality output. Stringent standardization of basic machines in various sizes, a machine family. Palette of pre-fit options in order to accommodate customized machines. Smartly designing the Metso edge technology into manufacturing-friendly hardware and thus reducing costs.

Jerome Bareth (left) learned the Advantage DCT-technology on Cellynne PM1. As a machine superintendent on PM2 he and his crew earned record breaking status. Niclas B Andersson, Senior Process Engineer, Metso, (right) The new PM 2 is a 2.59 m trim Advantage DCT 100 HS tissue machine with a design speed of 2000 m/min. Mario Maltais: “I think about a couple of start-ups in Europe with other machine suppliers. We got very good service…but the Metso service was exceptional”.

“We put resources together very quickly, invented the brand name ‘Advantage’ and started to work,” he concludes.

Anders Lindén, product manager for the Advantage DCT machine family, was one of the first on board when the development project was set afloat: “The most important target was to reduce the equipment cost and meanwhile not losing anything in quality”. This means that focus had to be on reduction of time. We need to consume less hours throughout the whole delivery chain, engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, preerection and so on. Metso has in the past tailor-made machines to customer preference. This was consuming large resources throughout the organization. In order to maintain customer satisfaction the solution became offering machines which are both standardized and customized!

“We have modelled our production after the car industry. Let us look at Volvo, which offer several size-based models. When the buyer of a car has decided on size he can select and add a number of options until he has got the car fitting his needs. We work in a similar way. First step was to create a family of standard machine platforms based on width and speed level. Secondly, based on its large experience, Metso put together a palette of standard options. Customers can now compose platform and options into a machine matching their needs.

“Before we decided the widths of the platforms we carefully analyzed the existing situation out in the field. We found that there exists a certain standard already. With the grid, we have established, we have a very good hit rate. The only width parameter which has a significant impact on the paper production cost is the headbox width. On the headbox width we therefore have the minimum possible increment, which is 60 mm. The number is set by the pitch of the headbox tube bank. The rest of the machine has width increments of 240 mm.”

How did the program work out? Lindén states: “Better than we expected! The previous total number of hours for a project has been reduced to half! Our ability to compete has increased a lot.”

The first Advantage DCT machine to start-up was Cellynne PM1. Metso has since monitored all machines after start-ups and built a large and very useful database. It has helped to make very safe predictions on utility consumptions and production output and quality. Performance guarantees based on good data can now be part of the offering to the customers.

At Metso, the work, following a customer order, is quite different in the Advantage program. Detailed engineering of the machine sections is done with the order, except for possible incremental adjustment of the width, which is done automatically in the computers. The usually very important total delivery time has since the program started been shortened.