UPM Chapelle PM 6 Improves Newsprint Production with New Ceramic Press Roll Cover

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UPM Chapelle Darblay, France, last year decided to replace the existing ceramic cover on the center press roll of its PM 6 with a TerraSpeed ceramic cover from Voith, Germany, to increase machine speed by reducing the draw after the press roll. The goal was to lower the draw by at least 10% in that position, going down from 3.6% at a machine speed of 1,500 m/min to slightly above 3.2% machine speed difference just by using a better ceramic surface on the solid center press roll.

After more than a year in operation, the production on Chapelle PM 6 confirms that UPM's expectations have been exceeded. In a very stable running performance, the TerraSpeed cover shows draw values down to 3.0% constantly, leading to a considerably higher production output, Voith reports.

These stable conditions were confirmed by monitoring the surface roughness of the ceramic cover, which almost had not changed at all since the startup of TerraSpeed in mid-2012. This consistency can be kept due to the excellent properties of the TerraSpeed cover, but also due to the proper doctoring with SkyTerra S blades from Voith, which were designed especially to run on TerraSpeed.

UPM Paper is a producer of graphic papers and runs 21 modern and sustainable paper mills in Europe, China, and the U.S. PM 6 at UPM Chapelle Darblay in France produces 260,000 metric tpy of newsprint. UPM Paper net sales amounted to EUR 7.2 billion in 2012, and the business group employs some 12,600 people.

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