Tissue Leaders Join Forces to Set Guidelines for Steel Yankee Dryers

Steel yankee dryers have been operating since 2000, and in recent years, they have become the dominant trend in the tissue industry. Currently, the estimated number of steel yankee dryers in operation worldwide is almost 400 units. However, to this day, there aren’t any official guidelines regulating their safe operation, proper inspection, and maintenance. 

The National Board Inspection codes for pressure vessels (such as ASME, PED, CSEI, JIS, etc.) regulate the design and construction of steel yankees, but their domain ends with the delivery. End users often demand that SYD checks and services be performed according to TAPPI’s standards, pointing to the need for an internationally recognized set of guidelines. 

In 2015, members of TAPPI’s Tissue Division first put forth the idea of creating an official set of standard practices for a steel yankee operations.  The task of creating a new TAPPI TIP (Technical Information Paper) was assigned to the newly formed Steel Yankee Subcommittee of the TAPPI Yankee Dryer Safety and Reliability Committee. The members of the subcommittee include the following companies:

A.Celli

Andritz

Baisch Engineering Inc.

BTG

Buckman

Cascades Tissue Group

ChemTreat Inc.

Clouth-Sprenger LLC

Dick Reese and Associates Inc.

Enerquin Air

First Quality Tissue

Forth Production Solutions, LLC

Georgia-Pacific 

Global Risk Consultants

InnovaSpec LLC

International Paper

Irving Tissue

Kadant

Kimberly-Clark

Larkey Consulting LLC

Orchids Paper

PT. Sopanusa Tissue & Packaging Saranasukses

Resolute Forest Products

Risk Engineering

Solenis

St. Croix Tissue Inc.

Thermal Coatings Intl. Inc.

Timco-Clouth and Clouth-Sprenger

Toscotec

Valmet 

Voith

The subcommittee wrapped up the Spring Meeting by finalizing a detailed TIP entitled: "Guidelines for Routine Periodic Inspection and Testing of Steel Yankee and Steel MG (Machine Glazed) Dryers".   The TIP will be published later this year.  

Members of the committee are also collaborating on a revised version of the popular "Guidelines for Safe Operation and Condition Assessment of Yankee Dryers".  This TAPPI book is being updated to include recent best practices including those for steel yankee dryers.   For more information on the committee visit www.TAPPI.org or contact Scott Springmier sspringmier@tappi.org