“Honeywell’s ExPress Moisture gives us greater control of our operations and greater peace of mind.”
Volker Krug, Head of Engineering and Maintenance, KANZAN
In the paper industry, manufacturers are often challenged with harsh environments. In a typical papermaking machine, the area where the process of removing water from the slurry begins, the so-called “wet end,” is characterized by temperatures in excess of 70 degrees Celsius and nearly 100 percent humidity. To overcome this obstacle, Europe’s leading supplier of thermal papers and specialty paper products turned to Honeywell to optimize the process in its press section and increase production rates by machine speed.
KANZAN chose Honeywell for its quality control systems that measure different characteristics of paper, such as moisture content, so they can be controlled during the manufacturing process. By maintaining uniform moisture distribution and removing water at optimal rates along the length of the machine, paper can be produced more uniformly and efficiently.
KANZAN has attained many benefits since implementing the Honeywell ExPress Moisture cross-directional (CD) scanner:
KANZAN was founded in 1990 as a joint venture of the Japanese paper manufacturer Kanzaki Paper (today Oji Paper) and the German company Zanders Feinpapiere AG. In 1991, KANZAN began production at the Neumuehl mill in Dueren, a location rich in tradition having been occupied by papermakers since 1710. The mill has been transformed into a high-tech production facility.
The company’s leadership in quality and competence is characterized by its technological innovations. Control, replicability and consistency throughout the entire production process guarantee a high level of product quality, a level which sets the standards in its markets.
KANZAN has ultra-modern machinery to produce the widest range of thermal and inkjet papers. The company recognized the need for automated moisture technology to optimize the process in its press section and to increase production rates by machine speed.
Determining the positioning of the automated solution proved to be extremely difficult due to the tight space directly behind the press within the machine frames.
KANZAN implemented the ExPress Moisture CD scanner at paper machine 6’s press section as a standalone system with a profile link to the existing Honeywell MXOpen QCS. Honeywell services included pre-engineering with machine drawings to mount the scanner inside the press section, supervision of mechanical installation, commissioning and startup of the ExPress scanner and overall project management.
Due to the extremely tight space behind the press where the ExPress Moisture scanner needed to be installed, Honeywell had to develop a specific mechanical engineering solution to swing the scanner into a service position with pneumatic valves. With this configuration it is now possible to exchange the press rolls without removing the frame and no additional adjustments are necessary.
With Honeywell’s ExPress Moisture, compact fixed-point sensors provide continuous measurement of water content at each press nip and drying section. By maintaining uniform moisture distribution in the cross direction, wet end to dry end, and removing water at optimal rates along the length of the machine, paper is produced with lower draws, reduced dried-in tension variations and more uniform shrinkage. This ultimately improves runnability on the machine, converting and printing operations, helping KANZAN meet tight quality standards and improving paper machine productivity.
“The flexibility of fast and accurate CD profiles with fixed-point MD measurements gives us the visibility required to identify the source of disturbances,” said Volker Krug, Head of Engineering and Maintenance for KANZAN.
ExPress Moisture CD sensors are guided by carbon fiber rails and are actually moved across the width of the paper by a reinforced fiber optic cable. The sensor measures moisture by selective infrared absorption and transmits this data to a computer system that calculates control information and directs the paper machine to make minute adjustments to keep the paper consistently within specifications.
“We chose Honeywell for the ease of use of its scanners and because they could integrate with our existing QCS. We have a great working relationship with Honeywell. The implementation was on time and extremely well organized. We are looking forward to a long-term and mutually satisfying partnership with Honeywell,” said Krug.