Stora Enso's Varkaus Mill in Finland will install new pulp mill and board machine quality management solutions from Valmet. The orders are an addition to the extensive rebuild of the Varkaus mill's PM 3 fine paper machine supplied by Valmet to produce lightweight containerboard grades announced last year. 

The value of the order was not disclosed, but according to Valmet, typically, the order value of automation system deliveries ranges from below EUR 1 million to EUR 3 million.

"After the upgrades of both pulp mill and board machine quality management systems, the Varkaus mill will be able to fully exploit the rebuilt machine's performance potential," said Aki Korhonen, director of analyzers, measurements, and performance solutions from Valmet. 

The Valmet delivery includes a Valmet Kappa Analyzer for the pulp mill and Valmet IQ quality control system (QCS) for the rebuilt board machine.

The kappa analyzer will provide all of the necessary measurements of fibers, shives, and kappa number for brown unbleached kraft production. Sampling capacity of the mill's Valmet Pulp Expert automatic pulp laboratory will also be expanded with five new samplers to accurately follow pulp property development in stock preparation.

The delivery also includes a new Valmet IQ quality control system (QCS) for the rebuilt board machine. With sensors for basis weight, moisture, caliper ash content and color; the IQ system features state-of-the-art machine and cross direction controls. Additionally four Valmet RM3 sensors will be supplied to measure wet end consistencies with the exclusive ability to monitor both total and true ash consistency from the process for active fines retention management. New modules will also be installed to the mill's existing Valmet Paper Lab and provide automated laboratory testing for key board quality parameters.