below please find a selection of the latest news from the world of pulp and paper.

Feldmuehle GmbH, manufacturer of label and flexible packaging papers, has restarted production of paper machine 1 as planned after a 4-day maintenance shutdown. As part of the shutdown, various maintenance and improvement measures were carried out to further improve product quality.

ABB launched two new features as part of its Web Imaging System, designed to help manufacturers deliver on-specification paper as part of ABB’s commitment to providing end-to-end integrated solutions for the pulp and paper industry.

Holmen is now taking another step towards more resource-efficient and digital forestry. Through an advanced three-dimensional image analysis of the forest company’s wood deliveries, Holmen will be able to increase the efficiency of transport and boost the added value of the wood.

Paperazzo is delighted to announce the winners of the Paperazzo Haptik Award 2019. There were winners in seven categories. The Haptik Award, organised by the B2B magazine Paperazzo, honors high-quality paper and print products which put the tactile experience at the forefront. With the targeted use of haptic elements, paper and print products gain a competitive advantage compared to internet & co. Only when media and print products achieve this successfully, people, whose visual and auditory senses have long been overloaded, can really “feel” something.

Veolia Water Technologies will provide a turnkey processing plant featuring HPD^® evaporation systems designed to optimize the production of wood-derived pulp employed in the making of high-quality paper from virgin fibers.

Ilim Group, Russia's largest pulp and paper producer with an annual production volume of more than three million tons, will significantly expand its production capacity in a project now underway. As part of an extensive investment program, the company plans to produce up to 600,000 tons of kraftliner per year at its new plant in Ust-Ilimsk, Eastern Siberia, starting in 2021. The key partner in this project is the technology group Voith, which is working with Ilim Group on this scale for the first time.

BASF is proud to introduce a new defoamer – Foamaster^® WO 2360, which is compliant with China’s food contact regulation GB 9685-2016 for adhesives and major food contact regulations such as Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) Title 21, Food Contact Materials Regulation (EC), Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung (BfR) and Swiss Ordinance on Food Contact Materials for packaging.

Valmet will supply boiler diagnostics systems to Outokumpu’s Tornio ferrochrome plant in Finland. Two separate orders of six Valmet Furnace Imaging System, Fixed Mount Mid-IR cameras increase the number of cameras in the plant from three to nine. The solution is a critical part of the plant’s process monitoring enabling real-time visual monitoring of the alloy manufacturing.

Smurfit Kappa Group, manufacturers of paper packaging, with operations in Europe and America, announces the purchase of yet another Barberán digital single-pass press. This new production line, a Jetmaster 1890 with 6 colors and a maximum width of 1890 mm print width and 80 m/min running speed will be installed in their Mexican plant in Atlacomulco and will be fully operational in Q1 2020.

International technology Group ANDRITZ presents its new “MasterDry™” dryer fabric portfolio based on premium-performance dryer fabric technology. MasterDry includes “best-in-class” woven and spiral fabrics specifically designed for the broadest range of applications, from the fastest low-caliper, single-tier positions, for high-temperature positions, and for those positions requiring extreme contamination resistance.

Smurfit Kappa Bag-in-Box, the global expert in comprehensive Bag-in-Box^® and Pouch-Up^® packaging solutions, has installed a new triple head automatic filling line for bulk wine supply chain specialist SkanVin in Denmark.

Sappi Europe is pleased to announce that it has signed a collaboration agreement with HP Indigo, as part of HP Indigo’s Alliance One programme. The alliance underlines both companies’ continued commitment to print media as the leading force in wood free coated paper and digital imaging technologies respectively. The collaboration will cover commercial, research & development and market related topics with multiple contacts being established as part of the co-development  between the two companies.

JSC “Yarpaper” selected Toscotec for a major rebuild of its paper machine at Yaroslavl mill, northeast of Moscow, Russia. PM1 has a wire sheet width of 2,830 mm, produces test liner and fluting in the range of 100 to 150 gsm, using 100% waste paper. Toscotec will supply the approach flow system, including screens, fan pumps, TT Headbox-H fitted with dilution control system and a newly designed Fourdrinier make up. The sheet path in the press section will be optimized, including the sheet transfer to the dryer section.

Sweden is rich in innovation when it comes to finding new uses for the forest. The next big thing might be a pulp that absorbs oil but rejects water. Thanks to the right industrial contacts, the product is about to enter a promising market. Sometimes nature itself has the smartest solutions to human problems. The Swedish company Biosorbe has a brilliant example - an innovation that utilizes smart components from nature’s own eco-cycle to clean oil from environments where it is not supposed to be.

Valmet will deliver biomass pretreatment system to PRAJ Industries for their second-generation bio refinery project which is under execution in India. The delivery is planned for the year 2020. The order was included in Valmet’s orders received of the third quarter 2019. The value of the order will not be disclosed.