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Left: “Usually paper machines suffer a loss of efficiency when changing from offline to online calendering. Amazingly, this did not happen here.”
Massimo Beltrame, Production Manager (left) with Matteo Nicoli, Project Manager for the Mantova mill.
Right: Friendly prospects for the LemaxX Spiral™ refiner plates: The test results indicate energy-saving performance with excellent fiber quality.
From left to right: Gianfranco Gaiano, Michael Jarolim, Andritz Project Manager, and Guiseppe Tagliaferri.
The Burgo Group is a “new” company (established in January 2007 with the merger of Cartiere Marchi and Cartiere Burgo) that has been making paper since 1905. With market share of more than 13%, the Group is one of the top four manufacturers in Europe of mechanical and woodfree coated papers. It has 14 production plants (13 in Italy and one in Belgium) with a total manufacturing capacity of 2.9 million t/a. The Group also produces about 2.8 million KWh of electricity, some of which it markets.
This largest Italian paper producer decided several years ago to focus on the “Big E’s” of Efficiency, Energy, and customer Expectations to sustain its business.
For the grades that Burgo produces, there is heavy competitive pressure in Europe. Demand for graphic paper is holding substantially steady, according to Associate Vice President Antonio Stefani, member of the Board and head of the investment department. A number of plant closures only partially attenuated the imbalance between supply and demand. Pricing held generally stable, but did not offset the increased costs for energy and raw materials. “Finding ways to reduce production costs is very important,” Stefani says. “We are constantly seeking ways to optimize the energy and raw materials balance, while saving money at the same time. These savings are many times related to investments in new production processes and technologies in many cases. It is a very simple truth that you can only harvest what you have sowed before.”
E = EfficiencyPM 1 at Mantova
“Market position and investments in efficiency are two sides of the same coin,” says Stefani. “We know that we cannot maintain our leading market position without maintaining the necessary technical processes and machinery.”
The most recent project to improve efficiency was the € 15 million investment at Burgo’s Mantova (Mantua) paper mill for the modernization of PM 1.
Mantova began producing pulp over 100 years ago, and in 1962 a paper machine was installed for the production of newsprint. Furnish is 100% deinked pulp. Each year, 220,000 tonnes of wastepaper are processed. Paper production capacity is 150,000 t/a of white (standard and flexographic), salmon, and pink newsprint.
Burgo Mantova’s Project Manager for the modernization was Matteo Nicoli. “The printing industry is constantly evolving,” Nicoli says. “Especially for flexography papers, properties such as smoothness and uniformity of profile and surface are critical. Naturally, we have to stay ahead of our customers’ requirements, so we modernized our PM 1.”
For the modernization, new systems for fiber preparation, a new forming section, and a new Andritz Küsters soft calender, including a web feeding system, were installed. The calender is 7320 mm wide and runs at a speed of 1200 m/min. It consists of a heated roll (surface temperature 120° C) and a PrimeRoll MHV to achieve the best possible control over the paper profile. The calender and feeding system experienced a smooth start-up in May 2007.
Mantova’s customers were involved in the modernization process right from the start. “We asked specific questions of them about the change requirements,” Nicoli says, “and they ran printing tests for us to verify the paper qualities.”
Nicoli praises the support from Andritz Küsters during the start-up of the new soft calendar. “They had all of our machine performance data available to them through a web-based monitoring system,” Nicoli says. “So their best experts in Krefeld (Germany) were available to us. That was some kind of experience!”
The modernization has resulted in smoother and more uniform paper profiles. “It seems like we are working with a new machine today,” Nicoli says. “Many customers expressed their appreciation for the positive changes in paper quality.”
Nicoli finds the new PrimeFeeder from Andritz Küsters particulary noteworthy. “We were a little skeptical at first, because Andritz had not installed a web feeding system before,” Nicoli says. But, after a visit to the pilot plant in Krefeld, the skepticism was removed. “They impressively demonstrated how uncomplicated web feeding can be with our paper.”
The PrimeFeeder is equipped in such a way that usually three “shots“ are sufficient to securely feed the paper web. Regarding more or less typical figures throughout the industry, the average time to restart the machine after a sheet break can be reduced by two to three minutes every time. Multiplied by the average number of production days in a year, that equals nearly 24 hours of increased production time each year.
When asked whether the modernization of PM1 also had an effect on machine efficiency and energy consumption, the engineer nods a careful yes. However, the question of energy consumption can actually only be answered indirectly.
Energy savings for the finishing section is estimated to be about 25% with the soft calender in place. “Although the finishing section is not a major energy consumer on a paper machine, any reduction in our total energy consumption is welcome,” Nicoli says.
Perhaps the biggest surprise for Burgo lay in the machine efficiency. Usually, the use of online calenders leads to a slight loss in machine efficiency. But, at Mantova this did not happen. “We did not experience a loss in machine efficiency through the installation of the Andritz Küsters soft calender,” Nicoli says. “There were marked gains in the ability to control paper profiles.”
E = EnergyRefiner plates at Avezzano
Energy – its generation, utilization, and sale – plays a unique role in Burgo’s development. If you ask Gianfranco Gaiano, Research Manager for the Burgo Group, how the company addresses energy issues, he will reply, “With the utmost dedication.” Never, he would add, would the need to save energy be disputed. “Because of our history, we have a special relationship to the energy aspect.”
Italy is the European country with the highest electricity prices. Renewable resources like wind, water, or biomass play an increasingly important role in the country’s energy scenario. Burgo has a history of water and biomass for energy production. Company founder Luigi Burgo started to build the first hydroelectric power plant, which also generated power for the Verzuolo paper mill, in 1905. Since then, it has become characteristic for the company to invest in an own energy supply whenever possible.
Energy production within Burgo (including its hydroelectric and cogen facilities) is sufficient to meet the energy requirements of its mills. In this context, the Group operated an “Energy System” in Italy of around 4.8 billion KWh. The energy business unit, Burgo Energia, handled approximately 1.8 billion kWh, buying and selling on the Italian electricity exchange and the bilateral trading market.
Gaiano and a colleague, Guiseppe Tagliaferri, are studying a move to include more short-fiber eucalyptus in the furnish. They ran a trial recently using Andritz’s LemaxX Spiral™ refiner plates. The trials were carried out at the Avezzano Mill, around 100 km east of Rome. The mill specializes in double- and triple-coated woodfree papers and has several refining lines. “With multiple lines, we were able to run our tests without interrupting paper production,” Gaiano says.
The two factors – raw material and energy consumption – constitute a huge component of production costs, according to Gaiano. “If we can positively change both factors at the same time, of course this is of great interest to us.” Conventional plates have grooved bars in concentric, parallel patterns around the plate. The crossing angle (angle between plate and fiber) fluctuates depending upon where the fiber is positioned on the plate. The bars in the LemaxX Spiral™ plate are arranged in a spiral shape. This maintains a consistent crossing angle regardless of the fiber position on the plate. The design of the LemaxX Spiral™ produces very good refining results with significantly lower energy consumption.
“When it comes to using short-fiber raw materials, we still have a thing or two to learn,“ Gaiano says. “We want to deepen our understanding of the behavior of short-fibered pulp under different conditions and see what that means for our production and the energy balance.”
The specific characteristics of eucalyptus fiber after refining were studied. Fiber length, specific volume, Gurley porosity, tensile strength (tensile index), tear propagation, strength (tear index), and firmness according to Scott Bond were meticulously measured, as well as opacity and the light scattering coefficient. All tests were run at different speeds to study how the fiber characteristics would change as production speed was accelerated. Gaiano is positive that the results from the LemaxX Spiral™ trials will be very interesting for those Burgo mills that process short fiber furnishes.
E = ExpectationsCustomers and Andritz
In terms of customer expectations, Stefani explains that one of Burgo’s strengths is the complete range of graphic papers it produces. “We offer coated and uncoated papers with finishes and characteristics that meet the various specific needs of the graphics and publishing sectors.”
With this in mind, the Group has been expanding its range of uncoated and coated papers with FSC mixed sources certification, and introduced coated woodfree papers with PEFC (Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification). These certifications indicate that the paper is being produced with fibers originating in forests managed in an environmentally responsible manner and with an eye to protecting biodiversity.
And, concerning expectations working with Andritz? “The LemaxX Spiral™ trials and the calender and PrimeFeeder for Mantua were not our first projects with Andritz,” Gaiano says.
Not too long ago, when he had temporarily changed from research to project management for modernization and construction projects, Gaiano was responsible for a PHC bleaching project delivered by Andritz to the Duino mill. “I remember the installation of the bleach plant very well,” Gaiano says. “It went really smoothly and was a good project.”
Experience with Andritz in the finishing section of the paper machine was gained before the Mantua project. In 2006, Andritz Küsters installed a hard-nip calender in Cartiere Toscolano, and has installed several swimming rolls over the years for calenders that did not originate from Andritz Küsters.
