Less Pulp Variability, Better End Product, 2004 Paper Summit, Spring Technical & International Environmental Conference, (including Papermakers; Process Control, Electrical & Information; Product & Product Quality)

Variability in pulp quality is of concern for every papermaker. Therefore, having enough reliable and timely pulp quality data to understand and control the process is of crucial importance. At Bear Island Paper Co. the emphasis was to reduce variability of the TMP pulp quality, which is the main furnish component for the mill’s newsprint machine.

The mill needed quick, automated, and reliable testing to reduce variability and was specifically looking for measurements of consistency, freeness, fiber length, brightness and tensile strength. To provide these tests a PulpExpert automated pulp quality testing system from Metso Automation was installed in the TMP mill. The analyzer has allowed the operators to collect more samples and process those samples on a more consistent and timely basis.

With the new tool, the Bear Island mill was able to reduce variation in the pulp quality. Besides improvement in the stability of the TMP pulp quality, the benefit of automated testing was apparent on the paper machine and in the final newsprint quality.