Specialty papers are in for a boom – get ready to tap into it!

The market is looking good for specialty paper makers – it’s expected to grow by 2 percent annually. One of the main drivers is the global megatrend of the switch from plastic to paper in the food and packaging industries. The transition is driven by environmental concern about plastic pollution, eco-conscious consumers, and bans and regulations set by governments.

In addition, the specialty paper segment includes a myriad of other paper products offering specific characteristics or technical features. These include glassine and release liners for adhesive label stock, medical papers, filter or sack papers, and much more.

As a specialty paper producer, you’re the expert in your niche and know your customers’ specific needs best. But are you ready to make the most of the growing demand and ensure your position in the race, which involves new grades, raw materials, and technical features? Flexibility and adaptability to grade changes are the key to successful specialty paper production. Runnability and material efficiency are key items with low grammage grades and complex finishing processes.

“Valmet’s technology, services and expertise have now been tuned to help specialty paper makers move forward with their performance. As today’s mills have very lean production and maintenance organizations, cooperation with us enables you to free resources from non-core operations and focus more on your core competences,” says Tatu Pitkänen, Global Technology Manager, Roll Covers and Maintenance, Valmet.

Roll solutions developed for specialty paper making

“In recent years, we have modified our product and service offering to better fit specialty paper and small and medium-sized machines in general. For example, we’ve developed an economical roll cover product range and extended our workshop capabilities to allow optimized logistics,” Pitkänen points out.

Over the years, Valmet has supported many specialty paper mills by finding improvement potential and thus boosting quality, material efficiency, flexibility, and runnability.

Savings in energy or maintenance costs have also been significant. Pitkänen continues: “We’ve delivered hundreds of sizer and coater roll covers for demanding specialty paper cases. Cleanliness and the avoidance of chemical build-ups are an important specialty paper production topic. To tackle the possible issues, we’ve developed solutions for areas like drying cylinder coating and suction roll cleaning.”

Are you ready to achieve these results with Valmet?

High quality with low-quality furnish

Today, the target is to produce high-quality products from low-quality raw materials. To preserve end products’ cleanliness and strength properties, you have to seek high-quality fibers from low-quality furnishes and enhance yields without fiber loss. But you can only achieve this with high-performing equipment.

Valmet’s workshop services for fiberlines and stock preparation focus on enabling high performance and high-quality stock and fiber production, prioritizing optimal energy efficiency, sustainability, and safety. The services cover products and solutions throughout the woodyard, from the stock line to machine screens and under-machine pulpers. “We can recondition equipment according to the original manufacturers’ specifications, including the latest product upgrades for improved reliability and performance,” notes Jarmo Viitaharju, Global Technology Manager, Workshop Services, Valmet.

Stock lines in specialty paper machines are often equipped with low-consistency refiners, and Valmet is the global industry leader in refining technology, services, and expertise. Through R&D and in-depth fiber analysis, product development, engineering, and segment design, Valmet is continually expanding its portfolio to deliver high-performing energy-efficient solutions for all refining applications.

Valmet also offers solutions for integrated fiberlines, including remote monitoring to prevent unplanned shutdowns and enhance dewatering for higher production rates in presses.

The Valmet TwinRoll perforated plate features superior dewatering efficiency. Its calculated and flow modeled dimensions facilitate an efficient filtrate flow without fiber losses.

“We also focus on various paper grades such as MG, release, label, or extensible sack, and we ensure the production of high-quality stock with minimal water and energy consumption. An excellent method for saving water is to use closed mechanical seals instead of traditional packing box technology. For sack/bag paper producers, our solutions support the flexible production of pulp that achieves the required tensile energy absorption (TEA) while maintaining low air resistance for optimal air permeability,” Viitaharju continues.

The five goals in specialty paper making – all completely achievable with Valmet at your side.

Target better quality and material efficiency

Reeling or winding broke, let alone customer claims due to paper defects, are something every paper maker wants to avoid. However, mills often have challenges with bottom wrinkles, air bagging due to hard edges, skew nip loading, or cracks or bursts causing defects to customer rolls. As we all know, broke means poor material efficiency – specialty paper broke is extremely expensive and is sometimes unsuitable for re-pulping.

Intelligent roll solutions have proven their capabilities at many specialty paper mills. Valmet Reel Drum Covers, iRoll Reel parent roll profile measurement, and online control have improved material efficiency by reducing reeling or winding broke and the number of customer claims due to paper defects. In one case, reeling efficiency improved, and the amount of broke decreased, by 85 percent. Read more from the article here.

Valmet iRoll Reel, online hardness profile control, and soft, compliant Valmet Reel Drum Cover RS-W help remove reeling, winding, and profile broke, as well as avoiding customer claims from converting or printing houses.  

Make maintenance more economical

Due to today’s lean mill organizations, every work hour counts. This is why maintenance procedures such as refiner plate and segment changes should take as little time and as few resources as possible. The more hours and manpower are spent on maintenance, the higher the maintenance costs will be.

One of the many solutions for easing your workload is a Valmet Rotor Removal Arm upgrade. The arm offers a faster and safer method for changing refiner plates, resulting in lower manpower needs and work hour savings of up to up to 30 percent.

Valmet Rotor Removal Arm upgrade enables fast and easy plate change.

Save energy and boost sustainability

Aging refiners don’t always meet modern process, performance, and quality requirements. And papermakers are faced with increasing energy costs on their refining lines. Short refiner plate lifetimes and high maintenance costs create further challenges.

All these obstacles can be overcome. Although reducing refining energy without sacrificing fiber strength properties may sound too good to be true, it can be done. Valmet offers refiner reconditioning with a Valmet Spline technology upgrade and refiner plate optimization to provide the desired fiber properties and achieve the longest possible lifetime. A reconditioned refiner equipped with optimized refiner plates consumes up to 50 percent less refining energy, with the same required fiber strength properties. Other reconditioning benefits include a longer refiner plate lifetime and lower maintenance needs and costs. Read more from the article here.

Improve machine runnability and flexibility

Specialty paper production calls for flexibility due to frequent grade changes. Products often contain coating and other chemicals that can cause buildups, resulting in an increased doctoring need or possible sheet marking. With low-grammage sheets, web break tendency can be an issue. This can be solved by improving cleanliness and roll cover profile stability in film sizer nip positions, for example.

There is often potential for runnability and flexibility improvement – for example, through better center roll sheet release and cleanliness. After installing a Valmet Press Roll Cover PD-R, a special center roll cover for upgrading performance and efficiency, a sack paper/wet creped tissue producer was able to reduce draw by 20 percent. The machine now runs well without web breaks.

Valmet Press Roll Cover PD-R special center roll cover gives excellent sheet release.

In specialty paper production, there is often a wide range of paper grades, requiring frequent changes of the sheet trim. In an example case, the customer mill had a challenge when adjusting the basis weight grade to the grade. When the weight was adjusted, the sheet had a tendency to track toward one side of the suction roll. The end deckle seals needed to be adjusted to maintain the vacuum. Operators had no visual sight of the end deckle seal location, and it took too much time to adjust the end deckle seals to the proper location and restore the vacuum. To overcome this issue, the Valmet Edge Light upgrade was installed during suction roll maintenance at the Valmet workshop. This tool enabled the operators to see the exact location of the end deckle seals and quickly adjust them to the edge of the sheet. After this, the adjustment took only minutes instead of hours, resulting in increased production time.

Valmet Edge Light upgrade for suction rolls allows faster and more precise end deckle adjustment when trims are adjusted.

An agreement enables you to focus on your core competences

Are you fully aware of your rolls’ status or technology level? Is there hidden potential just waiting to be unleashed?

An audit carried out by Valmet experts reveals runnability problems, running time limitations, performance upgrade possibilities, and other bottlenecks related to rolls. It provides you with practical hints for improving roll performance or reliability and reduces the risk of unplanned roll-related shutdowns or downtimes.  

Valmet Roll Audit aims to optimize future maintenance actions, as well as finding improvement potential in the rolls for better performance.

If you want to reach maximal production performance and shift resources from reactive actions to performance development or your core competences, long-term cooperation with Valmet is a tool for achieving your targets. A Valmet Roll Service Agreement gives you stress-free roll operations. You can say goodbye to nasty surprises and last-minute repairs, while developing your production line with experts to achieve high production efficiency and flexibility.  

Valmet Roll Agreements offer a comprehensive approach to optimize maintenance and develop specialty paper production efficiency.

For more information, please contact:

Tatu Pitkänen, Global Technology Manager, Roll Covers and Maintenance, Valmet

Jarmo Viitaharju, Global Technology Manager, Workshop Services, Valmet

Text: Marjaana Lehtinen