Turn-key refiner renovation for Temiscaming, case study

Breathing new life into old equipment - Complete refiner renovation at Tembec’s Temiscaming site

Tembec (now Rayonier Advanced Materials) is a manufacturer of forest products – lumber, pulp, paper and specialty cellulose and a leader in the North American mechanical pulping industry for the past 30 years.

Their mill in Temiscaming has been running two lines of RGP CD Refiners, installed in the mid 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s in a very stable environment with a unique TDC positioning system and Feedguard™ system to prevent plate clashing.

Refiner downtime, failure and instability

The Temiscaming mill presented their problem to Valmet: repetitive failure, downtime and instability in the mill. This was due in part to the difficulty of maintaining old and worn out equipment with limited resources such as staff, maintenance experience and cash flow - a growing issue faced by many of Valmet’s newsprint customers in the pulp & paper industry today.

More specifically, the problem began when a noticeable steam leak was present on the pressurized cover of their P2 refiner. Investigations ensued, and what had begun as a steam management issue quickly turned to much more, including rotating assembly failures, breaking shafts and increased vibration readings from the front cover. The mill was forced to run the refiner with a higher gap, which in turn affected the quality of the pulp.

Further investigations of the cover revealed severe erosion and cavitation between the cover and the cladding casting. The plate movement was visible to the naked eye; more than a few thousands of an inch of movement were observed. Onsite repair was attempted and failed. The issue was escalating and the mill was faced with a lack of resources to replace the refiner housing, inability to properly run the line, imminent drop in failure and safety concerns with the pressure vessel.

Valmet makes the impossible possible

The Valmet Montreal Service Center, with its high expertise in refiner maintenance and reconditioning, in-depth market knowledge and customer closeness, quickly jumped on board and accepted the challenge to find a permanent solution to the issues plaguing the mill.

Used refiner before reconditioning at Valmet Montreal workshop

A used, compatible refiner was sourced and brought into the shop. The task of reconditioning a complete refiner in under three months was initiated. The Montreal shop was completely mobilized and all hands were on deck to recondition a used frame, housing and drop-in unit along with providing all of the necessary components and applicable upgrades. The project was a challenge for all those involved, requiring hundreds of man hours and constant communication with the customer. Weekly project status updates were provided to Tembec to ensure adherence to the schedule in order to guarantee delivery for their required shut down and to ensure the smallest details were acknowledged and taken into consideration. There was no room for error.

Used refiner after complete renovation to "as new" condition

Turn-key refiner renovation

In May 2015, Valmet delivered a completely renovated turn-key "plug and play" refiner to the mill for their P2 position, on time and on budget, and provided supervised installation of the complete refiner switch. Since the installation, the refiner has been running at full capacity without any further issues. Tembec was pleased with the results, and more recently entrusted Valmet with the task of completely renovating a second refiner this time for their P1 position in December of 2015. At this time the mill is currently running two fully reconditioned refiners and will be commencing the renovation of their secondary line in 2016.

Even with all that our customers must face within the rough landscape of the industry today, it is important to remember that there is no problem that cannot be fixed. Valmet is pleased to work together with its customers to help navigate through the issues that they face, and find solutions that will allow them the ability to maintain their place as market leaders.

The Valmet renovation program can be a viable solution for any mill and is available for a wide range of equipment types and models. It is a great solution for any customer looking to revive outdated and worn equipment and bring the mill back up to maximum levels of production.

For more information on breathing new life into old equipment with complete renovation packages, contact your Valmet representative.