The largest Yankee cylinder in the world arrived in Kehl this month. This special production comes from Brazil. Target: sustainable solutions for the packaging market.

"The arrival of the cylinder represents an important step towards our new paper machine," said Dr. Stefan Karrer, technical director of the Koehler Paper Group (Germany). The 200-ton steel cylinder forms the heart of the new paper machine that Koehler is currently building at its Kehl site on the Rhine. With a diameter of 7.31 meters, it is the world’s largest smoothing cylinder of its kind.

The cylinder has already made a long journey. Although the manufacturer Voith has its headquarters in Heidenheim, Germany, the cylinder was manufactured in Brazil and transported from there by ship via the port of Santos to Kehl. Two cranes of 500 and 700 tons from MSG Krandienst GmbH in Kehl were already waiting here.

For MSG, these are two handy cranes that don’t require major effort to set up. Nevertheless, MSG alone had nine employees on site and another three from the transport company Gutmann. It was also the Gutmann employees who brought the cylinder the short distance from the port to Koehler’s factory premises. When the cylinder is used at the end of April, 60 trucks will be required to deliver the crane components. The shell of the workshop will once again be opened up.

The excellent teamwork of the three Baden-Württemberg companies was rounded off by the performance of LS Cargo, which transported the cylinder from Brazil to Kehl. Thanks to the excellent flow of information between the companies involved, the transport went smoothly.

Koehler will use the cylinder to produce paper for flexible packaging. In addition to the paper machine, Koehler is also building a new coating machine. Here the paper is given a special surface that will eventually have barrier properties for aroma, oxygen, water vapor, oils and fats. It will thus be possible to replace plastic with easily recyclable paper for various packaging applications.

"As a company, we will make a contribution to reducing the waste problem and developing sustainable solutions," says Dr. Karrer. Koehler is already working on advanced solutions together with partners from industry and science. Of particular note here is the Green Coating Collaboration, a joint laboratory set up by Koehler and TU Darmstadt.