Case Study: Vibrating Foil Technology Improves Drainage and Sheet Structure on Corrugating Medium, 2006 Papermaker’s Conference
The Vibre-FoilTM is a new vibrating foil technology that can improve wet end drainage, sheet formation and sheetstructure by imparting a cycling energy pulse to the partially formed sheet and fluidizing the fiber slurry. Vibrating foilunits were installed on each of two Smurfit-Stone paper machines in Ontonagen, MI. The first unit was installed onnumber 1 machine in 2002 and a second unit was installed on number 2 machine in August 2004. These machinesproduce 23 to 40 #/1000ft2 corrugating medium with a furnish of 50% hardwood, 40% DLK and 10% broke. Sinceinstalling the vibrating foils the mill has been able to reduce the headbox consistency on each machine, thus improvingformation, and has seen improvements in sheet strength test values, which have allowed for a reduction in refiningenergy. In addition there have been significant savings in steam energy required for drying the paper.