“The one absolute stand-out strength of Honeywell is that I can get help when and where I need it. The combination of Da Vinci QCS and Experion was an absolute benefit to our mill, and the success we had was indicative of Honeywell’s strong product quality and support.”

John Gill, Process Control Manager, SSCC, Brewton Mill

Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation (SSCC) worked with Honeywell to perform an analysis and establish potential benefits from replacing the Brewton, Alabama mill’s obsolete scanning system. As part of the project, SSCC decided to incorporate Honeywell’s proven Experion® Process Knowledge System (PKS) with the Da Vinci™ Quality Control System (QCS) after an extensive technical and economic analysis was complete. The combined synergy led to various benefits at the mill including:

• Coordinated process and discrete controls provided more stable operations and reduced losses during transition
• System provided better insight into the operation of the machine and process visualization
• Enhanced diagnostics helped to reduce time troubleshooting and allowed more time for optimizing processes
• Operators realized more availability and free time for dedicated training sessions
• System showed improved interlocking to minimize disruptions when anything goes down

Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation is the industry’s leading integrated manufacturer of paperboard and paper-based packaging.

SSCC’s Brewton Mill produces various types of paperboard products including white top liner, and coated and uncoated SBS for folding carton applications. The 50-year-old mill employs approximately 600 people.

As part of a major upgrade, the SSCC Brewton Mill investigated several options to help update its mill and replace its legacy scanning system. During the initial project scope the company looked to replace its QCS but soon realized that there could be major economic advantages to incorporating a new control system along with the QCS.

“SSCC wanted to leverage synergies obtained with a new DCS system and reviewed a needs/technology assessment,” said John Gill, Process Control Manager, SSCC, Brewton Mill. “Although we knew the type of upgrade we needed, SSCC wanted to make sure that we did this the right way and took a phased approach over the span of a couple of years.”

SSCC investigated several companies and selected Honeywell to provide the process automation and quality control solutions it needed.

“Although we spent several years on research and plan development and approval, once we decided on Honeywell they jumped into an accelerated program to have the new systems up and running in under three months due to a planned February outage at the mill,” said Gill. “Everything was completed on time and we were all very satisfied with the results.”

SSCC selected Honeywell’s Da Vinci as its paper machine quality control system. Da Vinci is an integral part of the Experion architecture. The integrated Experion user interface provides a single, configurable view of the process from multiple network-based application servers for quality measurement and control.

Da Vinci System Overview

“Operators took to the new interface and Experion very quickly and once the system was proven they didn’t want to waste any time getting other things going,” said Gill. “Although we are constantly evolving our processes and looking to further demonstrate the ROI directly attributed to Da Vinci and Experion, we can say that since the system was installed we have set performance records. We expect to continue to work with Honeywell to help optimize the system and processes down the road.”