Improving Mill Productivity with Advanced Wear Protection Solutions, 2004 Engineering, Pulping, and PCE&I Conference

Extended intervals between scheduled outages, shorter shutdown durations and dwindling maintenance budgets have increased the pulp and paper industry’s reliance on advanced wear protection technologies to lengthen conveyance equipment life and maintain production quality. The use of advanced wear protection on equipment, as a preventative maintenance measure, can enable mills to reliably extend planned outage cycles, while reducing overall costs and diminishing the risk of unscheduled outages.

This presentation will summarize recent field erosion experiments conducted by NorskeCanada’s Port Alberni Division on their power boiler’s induced draft (ID) fan, in an attempt to reduce severe wear, increase fan productivity, and prolong intervals between planned outage cycles. By replacing chrome carbide weld overlays with brazed tungsten carbide protection, the mill successfully extended the fan’s effective run time from eight months to twelve months, and ultimately, plans to lengthen their scheduled power boiler outage cycle from once a year, to once every two years. They expect to realize an immediate annual savings of $150,000 in fuel costs, and an additional $150,000 biannually in maintenance costs.

An independent review of severe wear protection methods on power boiler ID fans in the power generation industry will also be presented, with similar results. Outcomes from pulp and paper mill applications of brazed tungsten carbide cladding on other conveyance equipment will also be briefly discussed.