below please find a selection of the latest news from the world of pulp and paper. And don't forget to visit our new LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. We look forward to a lively exchange.

ipw news

Customers worldwide order products and services in real time in the Voith Paper Webshop. In addition to spare and wear parts, fabrics can also be purchased via the application with just one click for over a year now. Chandpur Enterprises Ltd. has been benefiting from the expansion of the product portfolio in the Voith Paper Webshop since March.

UPM Raflatac has signed an agreement to acquire AMC AG (Advanced Methods of Coating), a Germany-based company. This acquisition accelerates growth and expands the product offering of UPM Raflatac. Both parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price or other transaction details. The transaction is expected to be closed latest in Q3, 2022. The closing of the acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals.

International technology group Andritz will present its comprehensive pulp and paper product portfolio for sustainable technologies at PulPaper tradeshow, booth # 6b50, from June 7 to June 9, 2022, in Helsinki, Finland. At the exhibition, Andritz will focus on topics of CircleToZero™, digitalization, cybersecurity, and lifecycle services.

BTG is pleased to announce that all sensors are now supplied with the bConnect™ module, permitting them to be virtually connected and attaining all the benefits of Industry 4.0. BConnect is an edge technology, enabling application experts to have cloud-connectivity and remote access to diagnose problems, permitting near-immediate identification of measurement or calibration issues and enhancement of predictive maintenance functionalities.

Stora Enso’s new 100% virgin fiber-based kraftliner, AvantForte WhiteTop, is now commercially available. The white top kraftliner targets demanding premium segments, such as fresh food, e-commerce, and shelf-ready packaging.

OnQuality.Scanners and OnQuality.Sensors are successfully used in over 750 installations worldwide to continuously improve production and quality processes. Thanks to their compact design, the scanners can be installed extremely flexibly in existing and new plants. Based on the existing solutions, Voith now presents OnQuality 4.0, the next level for digitalization of the paper mill.

At this year's Zellcheming Expo, Bellmer will demonstrate the extensive portfolio of services that the machine builder with 180 years know-how can offer its paper industry customers. Focus topics at the Bellmer booth 73 in Hall Nord at the RheinMain CongressCenter Wiesbaden are optimal solutions for the production process.

“The heating systems used so far in production,” comments Eng. Andrea Gambini, Global Research & Development Director of Körber Business Area Tissue, “are now too underperforming: heating the embossing roll by means of a hot liquid flowing inside it requires a high use of energy, as does trying to heat it with heating system with resistors. Oil systems require dedicated facilities to heat and recirculate large masses of oil, greatly impacting the environment and creating unsustainable conditions. In addition, these factors contribute to lower overall equipment efficiency (OEE).”

Vafos Pulp, a Norwegian producer of unbleached pulp for cardboard manufacturing, will switch its energy-intensive drying process from oil to electricity, greatly reducing the plant’s carbon emissions. The company will replace a nine megawatt (MW) oil-fired boiler with electric heaters, controlled by ABB technology. The Kragerø pulp plant, which produces 80,000 tons of pulp each year, will eliminate 14,000 tons of CO₂ annually from Summer 2022. That is the equivalent to the annual emissions of approximately 7,000 combustion-engine cars.

Renova, a Portuguese company operating in the paper product manufacturing and marketing sector, turns to Italian automation and packaging systems design specialist Microline to develop a complete roll conveyance, flow wrapping and case packing system. Installed at the headquarters of the Portuguese company, the line boasts a high level of productivity and great flexibility. The project is the latest step of a partnership between the companies established almost twenty years ago.

International technology group Andritz has successfully started up an environmentally friendly production plant for dissolving pulp at Bracell’s “Star” project in Lençóis Paulista, São Paulo. In April 2022, one of the two flexible hardwood fiberlines that were started up successfully in September 2021 was switched from kraft to dissolving pulp production. High capacity with premium quality was reached within a few days of the switch.

bio-fibre news

Valmet has signed a Heads of Agreement with Circa to industrialize the production of sustainable biochemicals at Circa’s small-scale ReSolute plant in France and future large-scale production plants. Valmet will offer the main machinery and equipment and actively contribute to the development of Circa’s production processes of bio-based renewable solvents. The bio-based solvents will replace harmful petroleum-based solvents used in a wide variety of industries.

The Sustainability-Linked Bond Framework (the “SLB Framework”) is issued in accordance with the International Capital Markets Association’s (ICMA) Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles 2020. The SLB Framework is designed to support the future issuance of sustainability-linked securities by Huhtamaki. For the securities issued under the SLB Framework, the interest rate, or other financial characteristics, of a security will change if Huhtamaki fails to meet the predefined sustainability performance target at an agreed testing date for a designated sustainability performance indicator.