Metso Paper, Inc. (previously Valmet Corp.) is proud to introduce ZeTrac, the improved HC ozone bleaching process.

The development of this new process started less than two years ago and is the culmination of over one decade of accumulated Metso know-how working with this technology. The first installation is now in operation at Burgo Ardennes in Belgium. Two more mills have already commissioned the new process, Oji Paper Nichinan in Japan and VCP Jacarei in Brazil.The main benefit of the HC ozone process is the opportunity to replace large amounts of chlorine dioxide with ozone and maintain pulp strength. This will have a significant positive impact on production costs. The ZeTrac process is naturally very beneficial from an environmental point of view as it means substantial reductions in effluent volumes.

Furthermore the capital outlay for the new system is considerably lower than for earlier HC ozone installations. ZeTrac requires no refiner or plug screw feeder and one washing stage is eliminated. This will also significantly reduce both the operating and maintenance costs of the system.

At the ATIP Congress & Exhibition on October 17-19, 2000 in Bordeaux, the patented process was granted the "Prix Spécial du Jury" in the ATIP Innovation Contest. Altogether, the introduction of this system represents a major opportunity for producers of both ECF and TCF pulp to improve their efficiency and reduce the environmental impact from their mill operations. 

Heinrich Fiedler GmbH & Co. KG won a global tender at TNPL for the "Supply of screening system for chemical bagasse pulp". TNPL (Tamil nadu Newsprint & Paper Ltd.) produces in Kagithapuram, India pulp from the by-product of sugar cane ‘bagasse’, a premium paper mill in Asia known for its productioin of various grades of writing printing papers and newsprint using bagasse as its principals raw material. The capacity required of chemical bagasse pulp was of 220 t/d at the decker. The earlier system was to be revamped and the centrecleaning stage was to be eliminated.

The most important objectives of the project was to improve the screening quality, reduce the shive content and optimize the power consumption. A two stage screening system installed two primary screens with slot widths of 0.25mm and a secondary screen with slot width of 0.20mm, all screens of type HF500. Due to the high sand content in the bagasse, two HD cleaners of type HF-MCL2700 (sand traps) were installed prior to the primary screens, thus increasing the life of rotor and basket. The accept of the primary screens are sent to the decker and the reject of the screens is being fed to the secondary screen, the accepts of the secondary screen are forwarded to the decker and the rejects are drained.

The system is operational since July 1999 and all the objectives as mentioned above have been achieved well to the customers satisfaction. The most striking achievement has been the superior quality of the screened pulp and the optimized power consumption and the improved runnability of the paper machine.

Fiedler is situated in Germany and has 8 sales offeces in the Asia-pacific region (20 sales offices worldwide). The company offers optimizations of single screens as well as complete screening or cleaning plants. Cost and energy savings, improved screening efficiency and better runnability of the paper machine are few of the aims that Fiedler is committed to achieve. The scope of Fiedler’s services includes total engineering and supply of equipment’s as well as spare parts, e.g. pressure screens, pressure filters, ceramic centricleaners, HD cleaners, screen baskets / rotors for the screens of any make. l

 Paper formation is a fully statistical description of how the paper is formed or equivalently, of how the fibers are arranged. For a well formed sheet, it is necessary that the fibers
 -are as well dispersed as possible
 -have a minimum of alignment or orientation
 -have uniform consistency 
 -are uniformly distributed with respect to their length, breadth & weight.

The entire sheet characteristics are based on the physical properties of the fibers, the fiber network structure and the orientation. Variations in these properties cause changes in average basis weight, opacity, porosity, strength, run-ability etc. Though large-scale variations could be effectively controlled with today's technologies, the problem remains tricky and difficult to address local grammage variations (areas less than 1mm2) and this non-uniformity affects the above-mentioned functional properties to a large extent.

A formation Analyser that detects these small-scale defects and variations is the most appropriate answer and researchers all over the world have been working towards making this position a reality. CEERI presents its indigenously developed and tested instrument that utilizes advanced image analysis techniques combined with the computing power of the personal computers to make this analysis reliable.

• Uniformly illuminated viewing area.

• Automatic & manual lamp intensity control to cover wide GSM range.

• Formation Index based on specific perimeter of flocs.

• User defined floc size limits.

• Rapid measurement over wide range of paper grades.

• Zooming facility for : Processed & binary images & selected floc.

• Histograms, profiles & setup pages.

• Windows printer support

• MS-Access database for back volumes.

• Factory settable sample area.

• Software calibration facility.

• Monocrome CCD camera.

• 640 x 480 pixels.

• 0.02 Grey levels.

• Frame grabber with RS 170 input.

• 40x30mm2 sample area.

• +/- 1 Repeatability error.

• Proprietary software.

• Multiple reports.

• Current & accumulated data; Profiles; Histograms; Floc features & more.

• 15 to 120 GSM sample range.

• Optional up to 250 GSM.

• Standard quartz halogen lamp.

• 230V, 50 Hz power supply.

• Paper Maker's camera eye.

• Supports wide GSM range.

• Immune to external light variations

• Supports single and continuous samples.

• Highly reliable & repeatable measurement.

• Numerical & graphical representation.

• Windows operation.

• Easy Operation

As the result of years of intensive development work and customer cooperation, Metso Paper is now ready to introduce its new OptiSpray coating technology to the market. This new process for improving the coating of paper and board, and also printing properties, cannot be matched by any other paper machine manufacturer in the world.

The OptiSpray coating process is based on a controlled, high-pressure spray application of coating or surface size directly on to the surface of paper or board without any direct machine contact. The coating is simultaneously sprayed (atomized) at high speed on both sides of the paper web.

OptiSpray achieves excellent coverage of the base paper. This is because the spray application spreads the coating evenly over the paper surface, uniformly covering uneven areas of the base paper with an even coating layer of the desired thickness.

The process facilitates the development of new paper and board grades, or the improvement of coated-paper grades produced with traditional methods. For example, OptiSpray can improve the quality of newsprint to the extent that its surface properties are almost equivalent to those of magazine paper.

The spray-coating station can be situated on the level of the paper machine, in the normal way, or alternatively below the paper machine in the basement, which will bring significant space and cost reductions in machine rebuilds.

The process will also significantly lower running costs, as it is automated and contains only a few consumables or components that need regular maintenance. There is no need for the blades, rods or backing rolls of traditional methods that cause runnability problems.

Raw-material costs are also reduced because the process allows for lower MD paper strength. This makes it possible to use recycled pulp, for example, as the raw material.OptiSpray can be used for high speed coating. In tests conducted at the Technology Center in Järvenpää, Finland, paper was coated at a speed of up to 2 500 m/min with the paper web moving at a phenomenal 150 km/h!

The world's fastest production machines, supplied by Metso Paper, currently achieve production speeds a little above 1 700 m/min (over 100 km/h).The process has been extensively tested. Machine runnability, process operation or paper quality exceeded the targets. This provides paper manufacturers with an opportunity to achieve higher capacity utilization in comparison to present paper coating technologies.

 OptiSpray can be regarded as an extremely significant step forward in coated-paper manufacturing technology. Numerous pilot runs and trial coatings on various base papers conducted in cooperation with paper manufacturers have exceeded expectations. A development team in Metso Paper's Coaters and Reels unit situated in Järvenpää, headed by Vilho Nissinen, has been responsible for the OptiSpray technology.

Negotiations on the delivery of the first OptiSpray equipment for production purposes are currently underway.

Metso Corporation is a global supplier of machinery and systems for the process industry. Metso’s core businesses are divided between Metso Paper (fiber and paper technology), Metso Minerals (rock and mineral processing) and Metso Automation (automation and control technology). In 2000, the net sales of Metso Corporation were EUR 3.9 billion, and the personnel totaled approximately 22,000. Metso Corporation is listed on the Helsinki and New York Stock Exchanges.