24-hour world speed record for coaters increases to 1,769 m/min

Published Sep 25, 2001 20.47.00 +2 GMT

On September 19, 2001, M-real’s Kirkniemi PM 3 off-machine coater set a new 24-hour world speed record for coaters of 1,769 m/min (average speed). The new record exceeds the records for both on and off-machine coating. The on-machine coater record is still held by UPM-Kymmene’s Rauma PM 4 (1,751 m/min ) and the same company’s Blandin OMC 6 held the earlier speed record of 1,724 m/min for off-machine coaters.

The last-mentioned records were made on machines equipped with two Valmet OptiBlade coating stations. In contrast, the Kirkniemi record machine does its coating with four stations, using 2 x Valmet SymSizer and 2 x Valmet OptiCoat Jet concept.

During the 24-hour record run, the coater produced 80g/m² coated fine paper with a trim width of 8.5 m, which was wound into 28 machine rolls, of which 19 were coated at a speed of 1,800 m/min, or 108 km/h! If it had been laid out in a straight line, the approx. 2,550 km long paper web produced would have extended across Europe from Finland far into Spain. The printing surface would have covered a grand 2,165 hectares – enough to hold an enormous amount of information. In addition, the run was made with a splicing efficiency ratio of 100 % and only one production break.

For more information, please contact: Harri Pihlajaniemi tel. +358 50 5987694 e-mail: harri.pihlajaniemi@m-real.com

Vesa Elovaara tel +358 20 482180 e-mail: vesa.elovaara@metso.com