Displaying items by tag: metso

Metso will rebuild an off-machine coater of the coated woodfree paper production line at the Changhang mill of Hansol Paper Co., Ltd. in South Korea. The rebuilt production line will be fully operational during 2013. The value of the order will not be disclosed.

“The main target of the rebuild is to convert the production line to produce also thermal paper grades. As a result of the rebuild, the mill will be capable of flexibly changing production between coated woodfree grades and thermal paper grades,” says Metso’s Senior Sales Manager Pekka Turtinen.

The order is included in Metso’s Pulp, Paper and Power second quarter 2012 orders received.

Technical information

Metso’s delivery will comprise a curtain coating unit, a soft calender, a reel and a moisturizer for curl control. The new curtain coating unit applies a thin thermal coating layer on the web economically in a non-contacting operation.

Hansol Paper Co., Ltd. is a leading South Korean paper producer. The company manufactures printing papers, industrial papers and special papers, including thermal papers, pressure sensitive papers, fancy papers and inkjet papers. The company’s headquarter is located in Seoul.

Metso and Wärtsilä have received the necessary regulatory approvals from the European Commission to close the initiated ownership changes of MW Power Oy. 

According to the agreement released May 31, 2012 Metso will acquire full ownership of MW Power. The transaction between Metso and Wärtsilä has been closed. The value of the agreement will not be disclosed.

MW Power supplies small- and medium-sized heat and power plants for European market, and focuses on renewable fuel solutions. Its main customers are municipalities, process industries and utilities. The company has a total of 250 employees in Finland, Scandinavia, the Baltic area and Russia.

The SCA Graphic Laakirchen AG PM 10 was successfully started up on January 23, 2012 after a Metso-supplied press section rebuild in Laakirchen, Austria. The main target of the modernization was to increase production and to decrease energy consumption.

 “Our target was to increase sheet dryness after the 3rd press for increased speed. We also wanted to reduce the draw and specific energy consumption and at the same time maintain the high quality level as before the rebuild,” says Andreas Vogel, Production Manager of SCA Graphic Laakirchen PM 10.

Metso’s delivery comprised a rebuild of the press section with a new SymBelt shoe press. In addition, the delivery included mechanical drives for the whole press section and an automation system upgrade for the shoe press. The SymBelt shoe press significantly increases sheet dryness which in turn reduces steam consumption, improves machine runnability, helps reach higher speed and increases production.

The 7.3-m-wide PM 10 produces uncoated wood-containing paper (SC-A) within a basis weight range of 45-60 g/m² at the design speed of 1,600 m/min. The production capacity of PM 10 is 260,000 tonnes annually.

SCA is a global hygiene and paper company that develops and produces personal care products, tissue, packaging solutions, publication papers and solid-wood products. The company’s sales in 2011 amounted to EUR 11.7 billion and it has approximately 44,000 employees.

Felts play a major role with regard to efficiency and cost savings. As the process is complex it is important to analyze the whole process, not only one part of it. 
When purchasing a felt going for a cheaper option might, in the worst case, result in additional costs during the felt running time. It is better to analyze a felt’s real effect on machine efficiency by looking at the felt costs per produced paper tonnes and the savings (e.g. energy reduction and saved production time) that can be achieved with certain felts.

Energy savings through the right press felt choices

Big savings can be achieved by reducing energy costs in the paper machine. Electricity usage in the press section is huge and adds up to hundreds of thousands of euros every year. About 20-30% of electricity usage is related to Uhle boxes. Their friction increases the energy consumption of drives, and the Uhle box vacuum increases vacuum energy consumption.

Energy can be saved by using nonwoven and hybrid felts, which maximize nip dewatering meaning that minimized or no vacuums are required in the Uhle boxes.

Standard nonwoven and hybrid felts: AquaMaster and EcoMaster

AquaMaster’s immediately saturating structure allows a very fast start-up and maximal nip dewatering. As all the water is removed in the nip, Uhle boxes do not increase sheet dryness. Rewetting is minimized with a special layer.
EcoMaster is the combination of a woven and nonwoven structure. Its nip dewatering properties are excellent, but Uhle boxes can be used if necessary. Additional benefits compared with nonwoven felts include its smooth surface, insulation against marking, dimensional stability and less plugging. 
Many machines already use AquaMaster and EcoMaster felts and run with maximized nip dewatering, which saves a lot of energy with closed vacuum pumps or blowers.

New: high-end TMO nonwoven and hybrid designs

Saving energy is not enough when the aim is to achieve efficient running. It is also important to improve runnability and total lifetime in other ways. In addition to good and even runnability, a minimal number of breaks, a high dry content and a maximal running speed are also important. A fast start-up and unchanged felt behavior are very important for the machine to run continuously at full speed. Minimal felt wear and a non-plugging structure ensure good life potential. A longer lifetime means fewer felt change shutdowns and savings in purchasing costs.
The sophisticated hybrid base TMO (TransMaster Open) felt has proven to be superior in this respect. It is a special felt for very demanding machines, such as highspeed printing paper machines.
Impregnated resin treatment ensures TMO’s even performance throughout its lifetime. This treatment makes the felt structure dense and non-compacting, and perfect for a fast start-up and immediate nip dewatering. The structure remains unchanged throughout the lifetime with no late life related problems such as edge flipping or plugging. Improved mechanical resistance gives the TMO felt long life potential and makes it durable, also under high nip pressures, even if the base fabric is nonwoven or hybrid.
The savings gained through making the right felt choices are significant. The picture on the next page shows an example of felt costs compared with savings achieved with the right felt choices.
The hybrid TMO felts are increasingly used in many of the world’s fastest newsprint and fine paper machines, especially in pick-up and 1st press positions, to ensure trouble-free running.

Metso's new Neles Q2-Trim ™ reduces noise up to 30 decibels compared to a typical control valve helping process industry customers to improve personnel and plant safety while simultaneously increasing efficiency and reliability..

For more than 30 years Metso's patented Q-trim technology has been the industry benchmark for rotary noise attenuation solutions in challenging applications. Now Metso adds a new level of performance by introducing new Neles Q2-Trim which solves aerodynamic noise problems and reduces noise up to 30 decibels compared to a typical control valve.

Metso's frontrunning Q2-Trim technology is combination of various techniques resulting multiple benefits for customers. By eliminating the damage that high noise can cause to process plants, employees and surroundings Q2-Trim ensures safe working environmental for personnel and stabile process control and longer uninterrupted plant runtime .

By reducing noise and related vibration to acceptable levels Q-Trim technology also protects process equipment thus lowering the operating costs and minimizing the need for spare parts for valves and other accessories.

Combining Q-Trim technology with quarter-turn valves results in emission levels that meet all relevant industry standards. Compact size and selection of mounting positions means less pipeline support and easier piping layout design.

New Neles Q2-Trim is an addition to the existing Q-Trim technology and is available for pressure classes ASME 150 - 600 in sizes 2" - 16" and PN 10 - PN 100 in sizes DN 050 - DN 400 in standard ball valve offering. The standard trim material is stainless steel, Q-Trims made of special alloys and larger sizes are available on request. Q2-Trim has several key application in various fields in Power, Oil & Gas, Petrochemical, Industrial gas and Chemical industry. 

New Metso Valve Manager™, representing 3rd generation diagnostics, is taking predictive control valve maintenance to a new level, which makes the available information more user friendly and more easily understandable thus enabling several benefits for the customers: Enhanced maintenance efficiency, improved process performance and significant cost savings.

Metso's new Valve Manager represents state-of-the art, 3rd generation valve diagnostics which is capable of processing the collected diagnostics information to visualize the condition of the valve in question with five different indices: Control performance, Valve condition, Actuator condition, Positioner condition and condition of the operating environment.

With processed and visualized diagnostics information the maintenance managers and engineers and process operators are capable of making educated decisions concerning the control valve maintenance without deep valve know-how. Unexpected shutdowns can be avoided and the control valve performance can be maintained at optimum level by continuously monitoring the condition of the installed base at the plant or mill and by taking the necessary preventive actions based on the available diagnostics information. Also, with the help of the diagnostics, the available maintenance resources can be more efficiently allocated during shutdowns.

When so called preventive or schedule based maintenance strategy is followed, many valves are often needlessly maintained during shutdowns. By focusing the maintenance actions on the valves really needing maintenance, significant maintenance cost savings can be achieved through reduced spare part purchases and reduced need for maintenance resources.

Metso's new Valve Manager is available for the ND9000 series intelligent valve controllers. The ND9000 series intelligent valve controllers include several in build sensors and they are measuring various internal parameters. Based on this data and on the wide installed base and extensive service experience, Metso has developed mathematical algorithms to calculate the indices in the Performance view (presented in figure 1.).

Figure 1. Performance view
Control performance is the most important index out of the five. It shows how well the whole control valve assembly is performing its task to control the flow in the pipeline.

Valve condition index presents the status of the valve based on its use history and current measured values. Based on the index value the user can also estimate whether the valve will shortly be in a need of maintenance or not.

Actuator condition index presents the status of the actuator based on its use history and current measured values. Based on the index value the user can also estimate whether the actuator will shortly be in a need of maintenance or not.

Positioner condition index presents the status of the positioner based on its use history and current measured values and in addition also on several self-diagnostics parameters. Based on the index value the user can also estimate whether the positioner will shortly be in a need of maintenance or not.

Environment conditions index takes into account the conditions of the assembly (e.g. supply pressure value and its steadiness) and also selected aspects of valve assembly configuration. 

Future development areas

The 3rd generation diagnostics are already available for control valves. Same level of information can't yet be received from on-off or from ESD valve performance but Metso is developing its valve solutions further to bring these features available for the on-off and ESD valves as well. The technology benchmark devices on the on-off side, such as Metso's SwitchGuardTM intelligent on-off valve controller, already include diagnostics features that are especially designed for on-off applications.

The industry standard for on-off valve control is presently more or less using solenoid valves to control the on-off movement. One of the downsides with the solenoids is clearly that those can't provide any diagnostics data on the on-off valve performance. Thus it can already be seen with ESD valves, which are the most critical type of on-off valves,that in new green field projects smart partial stroke testing (PST) devices are being implemented.

The state-of-the-art smart PST devices, such as Metso's ValvGuardTM, are used to conduct different tests for the ESD valves, both online and offline, providing diagnostics information on the ESD valve condition. Next step would be then to have the smart PST devices analyze the data further and provide similar indices that are presently already available for control valves.

For other on-off applications, besides the ESD, Metso has brought integrated solenoid and limit switch combinations to the market. An example of such a device is Metso's Axiom on-off valve controller, which can also provide basic diagnostics by giving fault alerts of possible changes in the on-off valve condition. Some customers have already identified the need for diagnostics on the process critical on-off valves and the integrated devices can be seen as a first step towards this direction.

Metso's fourth generation IQ Steam Profiler design has reduced maintenance needs and opened many new application areas. For example, a recent tissue machine installation at WEPA Leuna GmbH in Germany enabled an 8% increase in production on towel grades, a reduction in electrical energy driving the drying hood fans, and improved tissue quality as an added benefit.

Continuing the trend of last few years, this year has seen significant increase in interest for Metso IQ Steam Profilers resulting record level orders.

With more than 800 meters of IQ Steam Profilers in use on paper, board, pulp and tissue machines around the world, Metso's advanced solutions are reaping handsome rewards for users. Combined with Metso's multivariable CD control technology provides significantly flat moisture profiles, which is a requirement now for almost all grades.

Replacing 1990's technology in a Swedish mill resulted in a 40% better CD moisture profile, while a Chinese producer recently ordered IQ Steam Profilers for three separate machines in the quest for improved quality and economy.

Dependable and reliable electromechanical actuators provide accurate steam flow control to heat the water in the sheet, reducing its viscosity and allowing it to drain more readily. In a well designed configuration the improved dewatering can be translated directly to steam savings and, on a dryer limited machine, increased production. The IQ Steam Profiler can provide a more uniform moisture profile and avoid the need to over dry the sheet to eliminate moisture streaks.

Metso steambox designs are compact and engineering design has eliminated many of the problems experienced with conventional constructions leading to the increased uptake in usage. "Steamboxes have become an indispensible tool on many paper machines to improve drying efficiency and cross directional moisture profiles," says Mikko Talonen, Product Manager, Metso Automation.

The IQ Steam Profiler (www.metso.com/profilers) is part of the Metso IQ quality management portfolio of solutions for paper, tissue and board machines. Using innovative solutions and cutting edge technologies provide effective quality management, resulting in better paper and printing properties with improved productivity and runnability. All Metso IQ profilers feature compact designs and advanced self-diagnostics for easier installation and maintenance.

With high-resolution, high-speed digital imaging technology, Metso PQV system helps to improve runnability and ensures flawless quality.

Metso recently received an order for the 200th Metso Process and Quality Vision (Metso PQV) system. The system will be delivered for the Metsä Board Simpele mill in southeast Finland. The Metso PQV system helps to improve runnability and ensures the best quality for the customer through an integrated web break analysis and web inspection system. The delivery is scheduled for June 2012.

The new system in Simpele will replace two separate systems on the machine and provide the ability to detect and follow possible faults and interrelated breaks back to their source. A web break analysis system is used to find the origins of web breaks, and a web inspection system is in charge of demanding board structure and surface quality analyses.

Metso Process and Quality Vision integrates web break analysis capabilities and web quality inspection using high-frequency camera images to produce a continuous view of the moving web. Three different geometries are typically used in web inspection system installations. Transmission geometry is used to detect flaws in the sheet, high angle geometry is used for surface defects and low angle geometry is used to detect coating imperfections. The web break analysis camera images and web inspection information are combined into a common operator interface. This allows the operators to detect key quality faults at well-defined CD and MD locations in the paper web and to track their origins in the process. (www.metso.com/machinevision)

Metsä Board is Europe's leading producer of fresh forest fiber cartonboards. It is also a leading manufacturer of coated white-top kraftliners in the world, and a major paper supplier. The Simpele mill produces folding boxboard for the health care, food and general packaging. The Simpele board machine, rebuilt by Metso in 2011, has an annual capacity of 300,000 tonnes, thus being the largest folding boxboard machine in Europe.