Prestige paper innovator James Cropper is set to take attendees of Packaging Innovations London to the dark side as it showcases its extensive range of black papers.

At the exhibition, taking place from 13 to 14 September at Olympia in London, the company will also shine a light on its Tailor Made service, which allows brands to develop unique, custom-made paper solutions.

James Cropper holds recipes for over 50 different shades of black, with four ready-to-order FSC®-certified black ranges available from stock and other blacks developed as custom projects.

Amongst those on show at the event include: Liquorice and Black Lentil from the Dolcelicious range, which are luxurious food contact-approved non-carbon papers made from pure fibre; Black Bowston, made from 100 per cent recovered fibre; and the Black from Vanguard, James Cropper’s leading colour range, which has a smooth finish ideal for promotional print.

Susan Wilson, group packaging director at James Cropper, said: “Our Tailor Made service offers a wide range of bespoke solutions, with clients able to choose everything from the individual fibres used to make paper to the ways they’re engineered, embossed and converted. Naturally, a huge part of this comes down to colour – something we’re internationally renowned for.

“Most people take this to mean our specialism lies in the colours of the spectrum and imagine reds, blues, greens and so on. Of course, these are important, but when it comes to packaging, black paper is like a wardrobe essential – it brings an air of sophistication and class, and has timeless appeal.”

Retailers at the exhibition looking to boost their environmental credentials are set to learn more about James Cropper’s policy on fresh fibre being sourced from sustainably managed forests, as well as its use of ingredients such as coffee cup fibre or post-consumer waste.

Susan added: “We’re looking forward to demonstrating the versatility of paper packaging and how it can be used to elevate the product within, while satisfying sustainability credentials. And when it comes to colour, more and more luxury brands are turning to the darker palette for their packaging, and black certainly offers great contrast to many types of printing foils, enhancing that premium effect and giving fantastic shelf appeal!”

James Cropper will be at Stand H14.

For more information about James Cropper, visit www.jamescropper.com

About James Cropper

James Cropper are prestige paper innovators based in the English Lake District, supplying distinct, custom-made paper products to many of the world’s leading luxury brands, art galleries and designers. Celebrating 170 years of high quality paper production in 2015, the business has been carefully stewarded and nurtured by six generations of the Cropper family and is renowned globally for individual expertise in colour, dedicated responses to the most challenging custom projects and award-winning commitment to the highest standards of sustainability.

A network of global sales and production facilities from Europe to the Far East provides local customer service to international clients, while its historic base in the village of Burneside retains nearly two centuries worth of papermaking expertise.

About Technical Fibre Products (TFP)

As well as paper products, James Cropper plc also incorporates Technical Fibre Products (TFP), manufacturers of non-woven materials from carbon, glass and polymer fibres, which play a key part in production of composites in the automotive, energy and aerospace sectors.

About James Cropper 3D Products

With James Cropper 3D Products, James Cropper plc has created the next generation of sustainable moulded paper packaging. Available in a wide variety of colours and with a naturally tactile finish, the product has a clear focus on quality and is design-engineered to suit all packaging needs. Features to improve product value and packaging integrity, such as personal embossing, natural hinges and cut-outs, enhance brand impact. All packaging products are recyclable and made from 100 per cent renewable natural fibres.

Stora Enso has just signed an agreement to divest the business and assets of its Swedish subsidiary Stora Enso Re-board AB, a producer of rigid paperboard for expositions and displays, to Culas AB, which is partially owned by the current managing director of Stora Enso Re-board AB, John-Åke Svensson.

“Stora Enso’s focus within packaging is on developing and delivering fibre-based solutions throughout the value chain. Re-board delivers a niche product and we believe that a new owner can better give this business the attention it deserves and develop it further,” says Peter Torstensson, SVP and Head of Corrugated Nordics, Stora Enso’s Packaging Solutions division.

The transaction is expected to be closed during Q3/2017 and will have no significant impact on Stora Enso sales and operational EBIT. The transaction is subject to negotiations under the Swedish Co-determination Act (MBL). Once the divestment is completed, the employees of Stora Enso Re-board AB will be offered to transfer to the new owner.

Stora Enso is a leading provider of renewable solutions in packaging, biomaterials, wooden constructions and paper on global markets. Our aim is to replace fossil-based materials by innovating and developing new products and services based on wood and other renewable materials. We employ some 25 000 people in more than 35 countries, and our sales in 2016 were EUR 9.8 billion. Stora Enso shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki (STEAV, STERV) and Nasdaq Stockholm (STE A, STE R). In addition, the shares are traded in the USA as ADRs (SEOAY). storaenso.com

Greycon were appointed by Tatrafan to implement a trim optimisation solution after a careful evaluation of the current slit optimisation system at Tatrafan’s plant in Svit, Slovakia. Tatrafan is a BOPP (Bi-Oriented Polypropylene) packaging film producer part of the Terichem Group and produce 17,000 tonnes of packaging film per annum.

After a successful pilot where some of the benefits from Greycon’s solution included; reduction of trim waste and optimisation of knife changes. Tatrafan could see the benefits to implementing Greycon’s trim optimisation solution, X-Trim. X-Trim was integrated with Tatrafan’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, SAP.

Jari Kaukiainen, Sales Manager for EMEA states; “Tatrafan represents a great example where the benefits became obvious through a small pilot project before the implementation. This is one of those supercool aspects with the X-Trim solution, as it is possible to run X-Trim as a stand-alone solution for a period and afterwards integrate it seamlessly with SAP, showing Tatrafan a significant improvement almost from day one.”

“We were very happy to continue on from the successful pilot project and move Greycon’s state of the art optimising tool into daily production at Tatrafan. It is the combination of the various efficiency improvements such as waste minimisation, optimisation of knife changes, minimisation of number of patterns as well as managing different winder types combined with the easy-to-use trim solution which make a difference in Tatrafan’s daily production processes” comments Martin Lach, Managing Director at Tatrafan.

About Greycon
Greycon is the world’s leading provider of production planning, scheduling and manufacturing execution systems that have been designed specifically for roll-based & flat sheet industries. Greycon operates throughout the world. Greycon’s strength is the extensive range of specialist software solutions for Plastic Films & Flexible Packaging, Nonwovens, Metals, Converting and Paper & Board industries supported by powerful optimisation algorithms and a highly-experienced team of consultants.
www.greycon.com

About Tatrafan/Terichem
More than 80 years of tradition of packaging film and BOPP film production in Slovakia and Finland created the foundations on which Terichem was built.

Terichem is the joint venture of Finnish company Ab Rani Plast Oy and the Slovak company CHEMOSVIT, a.s. with production sites in Slovakia, Finland and Ukraine.

For the last 20 years Terichem has been operating successfully in the global market of BOPP film manufacturers and suppliers under the brand TERICHEM.

Since 1.1.2017 Terichem operates in the market of BOPP film for packaging of tobacco, food and other products under the brand TATRAFAN. The division for BOPP film for production of capacitors is separate and operates today under the brand Tervakoski film.
www.terichem.sk

With the addition of AiroGuide to its product range, Voith is offering a guide roll cover in a modern fiber composite material suitable for all paper machines. Voith is producing the AiroGuide with a composite material which is very light but highly durable. 

The specification of the roll coating will always be optimized to the requirements of the application in terms of cover thickness, temperature resistance, and electrical conductivity.

• Guide roll cover suits all types of paper machines
• High cover abrasion resistance helps to ensure a constant fabric service life
• Low total cost of ownership thanks to stable service life

Endurance tests in the field showed that the new guide roll covers were able to increase the replacement intervals also in positions suffered from high wear using standard rubber covers. This reduces downtimes and results in lower total cost of ownership. The high wear resistance of the cover helps to ensure that the fabric wear profile stays straighter for a longer period, because the roll wear will not be transferred to a higher fabric wear. Like all composite roll covers from Voith, AiroGuide covers can also be repaired in the case of minor damage, avoiding the need for a complete replacement.

The purpose of guide rolls is to guide or redirect wires, felts or paper in a paper machine.  AiroGuide is a highly versatile modular cover concept that can be used for every guide roll position in every section of the paper machine: wire guide rolls, felt guide rolls, paper guide rolls. AiroGuide roll covers offer excellent value for money and can be precisely adapted to any machine. The specification of the roll cover will always be optimized to the requirements of the application in terms of cover thickness, temperature resistance, and electrical conductivity. AiroGuide can be readily matched with other Voith products, which also improves the performance of the paper machine.

The high wear resistance of the cover helps to ensure that the fabric wear profile stays straighter for a longer period and the roll wear will not be transferred to a higher fabric wear as a result of the speed differences.

Voith Paper is a group division of Voith and the leading partner and pioneer in the paper industry. Through constant innovations, Voith Paper is optimizing the paper manufacturing process, focusing on developing resource-conserving products to reduce the use of energy, water and fibers. Furthermore, Voith Paper offers a broad service portfolio for all sections of the paper manufacturing process.

For 150 years, Voith technologies have been inspiring its customers, business partners and employees all over the world. Founded in 1867, Voith today has around 19,000 employees and earns 4.3 billion euros in sales. It has locations in more than 60 countries and is one of the biggest family-owned companies in Europe. As a technology leader, Voith sets standards in the energy, oil & gas, paper, raw materials and transport & automotive markets.

Wood fiber costs for pulpmills throughout the US fell during 2016 and early 2017 with the price discrepancy between the Northwest and the Southern states narrowing, according to the North American Wood Fiber Review

Wood fiber costs for pulpmills in the US Northwest have fallen faster than in other region of the US the past year, resulting in a more competitive industry sector, reports the North American Wood Fiber Review. Despite the recent price reductions in Washington and Oregon, pulp manufacturers in the southern states continued to have lower wood fiber costs than pulpmills in the Northwest, Northeast and the Lake States in the 1Q/17.

“Volatile” could best describe many of the North American regional market conditions in the first quarter of 2017! The volatility came in many different areas; adverse weather events, operation breakdowns, plant explosions, and idling, as well as uncertainties over looming trade policy decisions, according to the North American Wood Fiber Review (NAWFR). Wood flows across Canada and the U.S. northern tier of states as well as through the Pacific Northwest were impacted by weather–either too much snow (leading to transportation difficulties), or mild temperatures followed by early breakup.

The declining price trend for chips and pulplogs in the Northwest that occurred during 2015 and 2016 came to a halt in early 2017 because of uncertainty about fiber availability as a result of slowdowns in harvest operations. Over the past two years, fiber costs have declined by 13% in the Northwest and pulpmills in the region have become more competitive. In the 1Q/17, pulpmills had only slightly higher wood fiber costs than pulpmills in the historically low-cost US South. Pulpmills in the Lake States and the Northeastern states continue to have the highest wood costs in the US.

Wood fiber costs for pulpmills in the US South have also fallen over the past year, with average softwood pulplog prices being five percent lower in the 1Q/17 than in the 2Q/16. Prices for both softwood and hardwood pulplogs have slowly declined over the past four quarters to reach their lowest levels in three years.  With several planned pulpmill maintenance outages anticipated in the 2Q/17, fiber demand will remain muted in the coming months. Increased lumber production across the South will continue to generate additional volumes of residual chips resulting in downward price pressure on both chips and pulplogs in late spring and summer. For updated information on the 2Q/17 wood fiber prices and market developments in the US and Canada, please refer to the upcoming issue of the NAWFR.

The North American Wood Fiber Review (NAWFR) has tracked wood fiber markets in the US and Canada for over 30 years and it is the only publication that includes prices for sawlogs, pulpwood, wood chips and biomass in North America.  The 36-page quarterly report includes wood market updates for 15 regions on the continent in addition to the latest export statistics for sawlogs, lumber, wood pellets and wood chips.

Xerium Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: XRM), a leading global provider of industrial consumable products and services, recently hosted over 120 customers for a technical seminar in Kunshan, China.

The seminar titled, “Innovative Technology - Upgrade Your Paper Machine," was held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Kunshan, China June 7-8, 2017.

Bob Burke, President of Xerium Asia commented, “More and more paper mills are looking for efficiency improvements in their existing machine assets. And Xerium is an expert at helping customers achieve those higher levels of performance. Xerium is always developing new technologies geared to saving fiber, energy and to improving the overall profitability of machines."

Bill Butterfield, EVP and Chief Technology Officer, and Gary Kilbourne, Global VP Application Engineering were the keynote speakers sharing Xerium's latest technology in forming fabrics, press felts, and roll covers.

The technical presentations addressed:

• New TransForm forming fabrics, which combine enhanced sheet quality, improved stability, maximum dewatering performance and longest life potential due to its unique structure and proprietary polymer technology
• Xerium’s new AnalytiX approach to full machine optimization
• New designs of Formsoft tissue forming fabric technology
• New triple layer single-base press felt technology, in both endless and seamed versions
• New tissue seam felt technology
• QS - quick saturation and Booster technology which greatly improve startup on modern press sections
• Blue Diamond polyurethane roll cover engineered specially for paperboard and packaging
• And, EnerSoft TS polyurethane cover which delivers superior performance on demanding tissue machines

Numerous success stories were shared of how Xerium differentiates itself from other machine clothing and roll cover suppliers by helping customers overcome industry challenges of today, proving that major improvements in machine performance and profitability are achievable without spending millions of dollars.

Since it came online in 2015, Xerium has significantly increased its competitive position in Asia with the Kunshan plant— first with press felt production and now finishing the most modern forming fabric technology from this same world-class facility.

ABOUT XERIUM TECHNOLOGIES

Xerium Technologies, Inc. (XRM) is a leading global provider of industrial consumable products and services. Xerium, which operates around the world under a variety of brand names, utilizes a broad portfolio of patented and proprietary technologies to provide customers with tailored solutions and products integral to production, all designed to optimize performance and reduce operational costs. With 28 manufacturing facilities in 13 countries around the world, Xerium has approximately 2,950 employees.

Source: Xerium Technologies, Inc.

From the end of May to the beginning of June 2017, Recard was involved in two new startups outside national boundaries.

As scheduled, the Easy Crescent plant for Meghna Group of Industries was started up in Bangladesh on May 20th. PM1 (sheet width 2850 mm, production capacity 50 ton/ day, speed 1200 m/min) produced its first reel of high quality paper immediately upon startup, which took place smoothly and with no interruptions. Recard thus strengthens its presence in the country after the plant supplied to another customer, Bashundhara Paper Mills, which was started up in 2010.

Another welcome return was Mexico for the startup of the machine supplied to Convertipap: the turnkey plant (sheet width 2850 mm, production capacity 90 ton/day, speed 1500 m/min) was successfully started up on June 2nd.

The machine began producing 24/7 immediately and after a week attained maximum guaranteed speed. Since 1992, Recard has installed four machines in Mexico and a total of eighteen throughout Latin America, underscoring once again that this is an important reference market for the Lucca company.

Inductive Automation customers can now easily access Seeq from their Ignition Vision displays for faster insights on production data.

Seeq Corporation (www.seeq.com) announces the availability of a Seeq connection module for Inductive Automation’s Ignition SCADA system. The new Seeq integration module simplifies integration of Seeq Workbench into Ignition displays and server gateways. Ignition customers in manufacturing, mining, pulp &paper, food & beverage, and other process industries use Seeq Workbench to rapidly find insights in their data leading to better production outcomes including improved asset availability, product quality, and process efficiency. 

“The easier deployment of Seeq and integration into Ignition Vision displays provides tremendous opportunity for Inductive Automation’s system integrator partners,” says David Schmidt, Controls Engineers at Industrial Automation Group, a systems integrator partner of Inductive Automation. “Customers are always seeking more insights, faster, from their data, so this is a win for the vendors, partners, and customers.”

Seeq is a software application for engineers in process manufacturing organizations to rapidly wrangle, investigate, and share insights on production data. Seeq has been recognized by multiple analyst firms for its modern approach to the pressing problem of finding actionable insights in complex data sets.

“We are very pleased to increase our support for Inductive Automation, and look forward to helping our shared customers get even more value from their Ignition SCADA systems,” says Steve Sliwa, CEO and co-founder of Seeq Corporation. “The innovative approach Inductive Automation has taken in building modern industrial software is impressive, and it’s exciting to be a part of their ecosystem of partners."

Ignition is an innovative SCADA platform used in more than 100 countries, and is the first universal industrial application platform with unlimited potential. Ignition empowers industrial organizations around the world and in virtually every industry, with an outstanding software platform and top-notch support.

"We are very happy to have Seeq’s support for the Ignition platform, which we describe as The New SCADA because it redefines SCADA technology and licensing," notes Don Pearson, chief strategy officer for Inductive Automation. "Many attendees at our annual Ignition Community Conference were very pleased with the flexibility and productivity offered by Seeq."

Seeq and the Ignition SCADA platform, working together, form a great combination, enabling customers to get the best of both an innovative monitoring and a data management platform, as well as rapid, interactive analytics on collected data.  Customers can achieve insights to improve production results, a task that was often too time consuming.

“This collaboration between Seeq and Inductive Automation will benefit the mutual customers of both organizations because it will make it easier to gain additional real-time intelligence from their data,” according to Craig Resnick, Vice President, ARC Advisory Group. “Enabling engineers in industrial organizations to use Seeq to more rapidly leverage the critical information in their Ignition SCADA system provides them the opportunity to make more intelligent decisions faster, resulting in greater positive impact to the customers production and profits.”

Customers with an interest in using Seeq with Ignition should contact Seeq for information on Seeq Workbench and connectivity options. In Seeq’s most recent release, R17, new features enable support for the integration of structured data from SQL Server, MySQL, and CSV files. This means data from these data sources may be seamlessly integrated with Ignition data for analytics and insights.

About Seeq Corporation

Founded in 2013, Seeq is a privately held company that publishes Seeq, an application for engineers and operations analysts to rapidly find insights in process manufacturing data. Seeq is currently being used in the Oil & Gas, pharmaceutical, specialty chemical, utility, renewal energy and many other vertical industries to improve production outcomes, including yield, margins, quality, and safety.  Seeq is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with employees across the United States and sales representation in Canada, Europe, and South America. For more information visit Seeq online at www.seeq.com.

About Inductive Automation

Inductive Automation creates industrial software that empowers organizations to swiftly turn great ideas into reality by removing all technological and economic obstacles. By cross-pollinating IT with SCADA technologies, Inductive Automation created Ignition software, the first universal industrial application platform with unlimited potential. Ignition empowers industrial organizations around the world and in virtually every industry with an outstanding software platform and top-notch support.

Page Overton is happy to announce that Paul Freeman will be joining the team with immediate effect. He will be heading up recruitment on the paper manufacturing and allied industries side. This is a further addition of an industry expert that will strengthen our service to this industrial sector.

Paul Freeman is a highly motivated chartered chemical engineer who has worked in the Paper Industry for the past 27 years.  He gained his first degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, his masters at Aston University and then later a diploma in Engineering Management.  After an initial period in the chemical industry, he first entered the Paper Making Industry by joining Smith Stone & Knight Ltd. in 1990.  This was just after PM4 had been built and started up and he joined as a Shift Manager.  This was a short lived position as he then held several operational management positions until he became the Operations Director of Smurfit Kappa SSK in 2007.  He has extensive experience in the operation of a Paper Mill and has overseen many safety, environmental, PM technology, efficiency, IT system and personnel changes in his long career there.  He has gained much experience and skills in leadership, operational management and control, business improvements, employee engagement and communications.  With a passion for excellence, he strives to achieve the very best in any assignment, recognising the power of people to make a difference in whatever field they work.

At 1:55 pm on 13 June 2017, the new XcelLine TM 10 tissue machine in Jiangxi was successfully started up in a new record time. Thanks to the great cooperation between Lee & Man and the Voith onsite team, it took only 30 minutes from “stock on wire” to “paper on reel”. From the very first parent roll produced the tissue was of saleable quality. All the components and parts of the TM 10 are perfectly matched and integrated with each other. This state-of-the-art integration ensured a remarkable start-up performance and will continue to deliver excellent results for our customer over the entire lifecycle of the XcelLine tissue machine.

With a wire width of 5,600 mm, the TM 10 is designed for a maximum operational speed of 2,000 m/min. It will produce 60,000 tons of household tissue annually from virgin fiber. The scope of supply includes the BlueLine stock preparation, approach flow system, broke handling, a white water system and the tissue machine. It features the perfect combination of a NipcoFlex T shoe press to offer remarkable energy savings, a 5.5-meter steel Yankee dryer cylinder to enhance drying efficiency through optimized heat transfer, and a high-performance steam-heated hood to provide the required tissue quality with lower energy consumption. Moreover, the Voith automation package with DCS, MCS and QCS also formed an integral part of the order.

Harry Ng, General Manager Lee & Man (4th from left); Alfred Lai, Operation Manager Lee & Man (3rd from left) and Daniel Tam, Senior Production Manager Lee & Man (2nd from left) with Thomas Holzer, President Voith Paper Asia (4th from right) and Kurt Yu (3rd from right), Vice President Sales Voith Paper Asia.

Just one week earlier, in the same factory, the Lee & Man TM 9 supplied by Voith Paper successfully reached its operating speed of up to 1,905 m/min within only 14 days. Voith achieved start-up of the TM 9 and TM 10 in two days form the satisfied customer. Jiangxi is an important tissue production base for the Lee & Man Group, which covers the East Coast market in China. As a strong partner to Lee & Man, Voith helps to set the right course and offers ideal solutions for raising quality and efficiency to the next level.

Established in 1994, Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing Limited is one of the world’s leading paper manufacturers, mainly producing packaging paper and tissue paper with different grades and specifications. The company’s annual production volume in 2016 was up to 5.63 million tons. The company currently has five production locations in China, with a total of 6,500 employees.

At 1:55 pm on 13 June 2017, the new XcelLine TM 10 tissue machine in Jiangxi was successfully started up in a new record time.

Voith Paper is a group division of Voith and is one of the leading partners and pioneers in the paper industry. Through constant innovations, Voith Paper is optimizing the paper manufacturing process, focusing on developing resource-saving products to reduce the use of energy, water and fibers. Furthermore, Voith Paper offers a broad service portfolio for all sections of the paper manufacturing process.

For 150 years, Voith’s technologies have been inspiring customers, business partners and employees around the world. Founded in 1867, Voith today has around 19,000 employees, sales of €4.3 billion and locations in more than 60 countries worldwide and is thus one of the largest family-owned companies in Europe. Being a technology leader, Voith sets standards in the markets of energy, oil & gas, paper, raw materials and transport & automotive.