New wet end improves supercalendered paper qualtiy at Madison Paper Industries

Pulp & Paper, Apr 2003 by Cody, Harold

At Madison Paper Industries, a $52-million project to add gap forming technology has helped maintain the Madison, Maine, mill as a leader of quality for North American SC-A grades

Owing to the long-term approach of its owners, Madison Paper Industries (MPI) has invested in a variety of upgrades to position the Madison, Maine, mill as one of the industry's top quality producers of SC-A grades.Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, several hundred million dollars were invested in projects throughout the mill, ranging from numerous quality-related projects to installation of a new paper machine and pulp mill.

However, despite this forward-looking approach, MPI faced a major challenge in the late 1990s. The company was competing against European and North American mills operating newer equipment capable of producing higher-quality supercalendered (SC) grades. To meet this challenge, $52 million was invested to install a new wet end and to upgrade the dryer section on the mill's paper machine. The major justification of the project was focused on improving paper quality, but an increase in operating speed also led to a gain in capacity.

LONG HISTORY OF CHANGE. The history of papermaking at the Madison, Maine, mill goes back many years.The first facility at the site-a sulfite pulp mill-was built in 1891, followed by the installation of two newsprint machines and a groundwood pulp mill in 1899. During the period from 1955 to 1977, the facility operated under several owners before Myllykoski Corp. acquired the struggling mill in 1977. In 1980, Myllykoski joined forces with the New York Times Co. as partners and, in 1981, completed a $200-million modernization project that converted the mill to SC-A production. The project added the No. 3 paper machine, which is now the mill's sole machine, and a new pressurized groundwood pulp mill.

With the new paper machine, MPI became the first mill in the U.S. dedicated entirely to the manufacture of SC paper. Madison's Symmetry grade established itself as an industry standard.

The history of upgrades to the 100-- year-old facility, which is summarized in Table 1, provides insight into what is required to compete in today's competitive printing and writing paper market. "We've invested some $180 million in the mill since the No. 3 paper machine was installed," describes Mike Doiron, project manager for the rebuild and manager of paper operations.

The wet end rebuild project is just the latest in a long series of modernization projects enacted at the mill, and it illustrates the long-term commitment taken by the mill's owners.This commitment is particularly noteworthy given problems plaguing mills all over the Northeastern U.S., including in Maine, where several mills have recently closed or gone bankrupt and where one of the major causes was lack of investment.

The projects have modified or upgraded most major areas of the mill, including several upgrades to the finishing area that began in the late 1990s. The upgrade to the mill's roll wrapping capabilities included the first Voith Twister roll wrapper installed in North America.

PROJECT GOALS RAISE THE BAR. Despite the money invested to continually upgrade the mill, including considerable work on the No. 3 paper machine since its installation, the advent of new forming technology for SC papers had placed the mill at a competitive disadvantage. During the late 1990s, major rebuilds and new machine installations by SC-A competitors in North America and Europe had raised the bar in terms of SC paper quality. In the last few years, modernization projects completed by major producers in North America and several mills in Europe installed gap-forming wet end technology, which produces a sheet having among other things a muchimproved filler distribution compared to old-style fourdrinier and hybrid formers.

In addition, several rebuilds in North America had converted newsprint machines to online production of SC-B and even SC-A grades. Prior to the rebuild, the wet end at MPI consisted of a conventional fourdrinier, SymFormer R topwire former, Symflo headbox, and a Tri-nip press section.

These ongoing advancements in SC paper production technology were pushing Madison to increase paper quality. "The top tier of SC-A producers was improving its sheet quality, and the bottom tier, consisting of SC-B and lower quality SC-A sheets, was also improving," notes Herb Jordan, who worked on several key aspects of the rebuild, including training, equipment checkout, and startup."Thus, we had to make a commitment to maintain our position at the top."

The No. 3 modernization project was driven by several major objectives, but the majority of these centered on sheet quality. "While the rebuild would also result in an increase in capacity, that alone would not have justified the project's cost," explains Jordan. The targets or goals for the rebuild are summarized in Table 2.

IN-HOUSE PROJECT MANAGEMENT. The mill did not use the engineer/procure/construct turnkey approach, but instead chose to handle much of the project inhouse. "It's our culture to have direct control over projects and upgrades to ensure the project is completed to our satisfaction," explains Doiron.