Cascades Starts up UFS-to-Tissue Conversion at St. Helens

Cascades, Kingsey Falls, Qué., Canada, has started up a converted uncoated freesheet (UFS) paper machine for making tissue paper at its St Helens, Ore., USA, mill.. PM 2 is a "wet crepe tissue machine that will produce 55,000 tpy of napkin and toweling grades for the away from home market," the company said in a RISI report. Boise Paper used to make UFS paper on the H2 machine.

"We are very pleased with the quality and productivity on H2. We are already selling rolls and the initial customer feedback has been very good," a company official noted in the RISI report. "The ramp up will continue in the next months."

The Cascades conversion is the second one in two years in the USA where tissue producers converted a former UFS machine. ST Paper last year started making tissue on a converted UFS machine at International Paper’s Franklin, VA, mill. (see feature article in TAPPI’s Fall/Winter 2013 issue of Tissue360 magazine).