Toscotec Recognized as Global Leader of Turnkey Tissue Projects.

In the last 15 years, Toscotec has specialized in the delivery of turnkey projects, providing more than 20 turnkey projects across the world. Based on this substantial experience, the Italian manufacturer has become a leading global supplier of turnkey tissue projects.

Toscotec’s turnkey scope of supply encompasses the entire tissue making plant, with the only exception being civil works. The scope includes the complete stock preparation plant (tanks, chests, agitators, the piping system, stock and water pumps and instrumentation), Toscotec’s patented TT SAF (short approach flow) system, the tissue line -- crescent former or TAD – and its auxiliaries (vacuum plant, hood and air system, steam and condensate plant, dust and mist removal systems), the water treatment plants, the electrical power plant with cabinets, motors, cables and accessories, the control system, the compressed air system, the steam generators, the bridge cranes, the HVAC system (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), the chemical preparation skids, and the complete package of services including the plant erection, commissioning and start-up, operational and maintenance training, and the technical/operational support after start-up to achieve the guaranteed performances.

Installations extend across four continents, with projects in Asia, Africa, America and Europe. Every project has specific logistic requirements, including transport to remote areas, and it often demands compliance to local standards of machinery manufacturing, with required coordination with local governmental bodies and customized engineering. This is part of the reason why Toscotec’s considerable flexibility and continuous communication with customers play a crucial role in the successful completion of complex projects such as turnkeys.

Apart from greenfield supplies, Toscotec also specializes in rebuild projects on a turnkey basis, where it provides the whole package for the rebuild, including the entire scope of the new equipment, dismantling operations, erection, commissioning and start-up. Toscotec’s rebuilds regenerate and extend the life of the existing plant, and require an even higher degree of customization than greenfield projects, because the design takes into account the constraints of the existing equipment.

More than 70 percent of Toscotec’s turnkey projects install the top of the line AHEAD tissue machine, with paper width ranging from 2.7 m to 5.6 m, production capacity up to 250 tpd and operating speed up to 2,000 m/min and beyond.

Tissue producers point to the supplier’s full accountability as one of the main advantages of turnkey contracts. Toscotec has consistently demonstrated its ability to deliver on demanding performances and to successfully manage highly complex projects. The fact that a high percentage of Toscotec’s turnkey projects are repeated orders is clear evidence of this. The Germany-based Wepa Group consecutively chose Toscotec for four of its turnkey plants, with startups in 2002, two in 2015 and 2017.

The Nigerian tissue producer Bel Papyrus started up three complete Toscotec plants, for its PM 1, which became Toscotec’s first turnkey supply and then PM 2 in 2004 and PM 3 in 2013. Other repeated turnkey orders were placed by The Navigator Company in Portugal and several of Essity’s projects.

Cristina Brocchini, Toscotec’s VCTO/process & project engineering manager, says: “Our first competitive advantage as turnkey supplier is our validated internal ability to manage complex projects, based on the vast experience we gained over 15 years”.

The vast scope of supply of turnkey projects demand remarkable management skills and fine-tuned internal coordination. Brocchini points out, “The entire engineering is developed internally, which means that 100 percent of the plant design is completed by Toscotec’s technical department itself, including all processes (stock, water, vacuum, hood, steam, dust, mist etc.).”

The Italian manufacturer has invested in building a highly specialized technical team, who works with the most cutting-edge technological tools, including multiple 2D and 3D CAD software, a first-class PLM (product lifecycle management) system, advanced simulation software and mechanical analysis tools such as FEM (finite element model), CFD (computational fluid dynamics) and PFD (process flow diagrams). “We also have a stringent protocol of internal coordination of competences, to ensure efficiency between technical, purchasing, production, logistics and all departments involved,” says Brocchini.

Toscotec’s service department is also a key player in the successful completion of turnkey projects. Toscotec’s chief customer service officer, Valter Di Nardo, adds, “The erection on a turnkey project lasts several months. It calls for diligent planning and much people management and coordination work. In 2015, we truly outdid ourselves, by starting up five turnkey projects in the same year. Managing more than one turnkey project at the same time is not uncommon in Toscotec’s experience. In 2009, we fired up three turnkeys, then another two in 2017 and we will have other five starting production later this year and beginning of 2020.”

The second advantage Toscotec offers as turnkey supplier is its proven capability to expertly deal with all kinds of raw materials.

Toscotec has vast experience in the full range of fiber types, including virgin fiber, recycled paper, non-wood (bamboo, bagasse and others) and deinked fiber, pre-dried, flash or slush.

Brocchini says, “With turnkeys we can go a long way towards truly tailoring the process and the plant to the needs of the customer. As for recycled fiber, we designed and delivered stock preparation systems on several different turnkey plants in Africa and Europe. Bel Papyrus PM 3 was a rather challenging case. We supplied two stock preparation lines, one for virgin fiber and one for recycled, which could run as fully independent or together to get a mixed pulp. The recycled paper line included various screening stages, a low density cleaning system, a deinking plant, two loops of washing, hot dispersion and two bleaching stations (oxidant and reducing). We also supplied the sludge treatment system, which is crucial when it comes to recycled raw material.”

In cases where the paper mill produced its own slush pulp, Toscotec expertly solved the issue of high resin content in the pulp, especially softwood pulp, thus avoiding the risk of unplanned stops and reduced wire life.

With an eye to the reduction of production cost, on numerous projects Toscotec has also engineered a range of customized lines to process converting broke (including cores, glue and plastic waste), cup stock or selected recycled paper, in order to recycle these fibres into the process and maximize fiber efficiency without affecting machine performance.

The third key advantage of Toscotec’s turnkey supply is its focus on saving energy and pushing the envelope on energy efficiency, across the entire plant.

Heat recovery is a Toscotec specialty, aimed to achieve the maximum possible thermal efficiency. The hood air system and the vacuum plant are two significant examples.

On the air system, Toscotec can install up to five heat exchangers. “But the most important aspect,” Brocchini adds, “is that before we start engineering a plant, we carry out a detailed analysis of the available energy streams and the local cost of energy sources. In order to reduce the operating cost of the mill, we balance the system, according to which source we can use and what it is more convenient to recover. Over the years, we have implemented a wide variety of solutions, it is just a matter of understanding the mill’s specific needs and then we can work out the most suitable design to achieve both reduction of their production cost and more environmentally friendly operations.”

In the vacuum system, in order to maximize energy recovery and reduce overall consumption, Toscotec was one of the first suppliers to install turbo blowers. Back in 2011, at a time when very few people believed in the benefits of this technical solution, Toscotec designed the vacuum system of Papeterie d’Annonay in France, based on the idea that recovering the heat of the vacuum pumps’ exhaust air would lead to a significant reduction of energy consumption in the hood air system. Since then, Toscotec has successfully applied the same solution to another six plants in Europe, the Americas and Africa.

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