Fine paper mill slashes scrap due to streaks by up to 80%
A close working partnership between BTG’s Duroblade® experts and field engineers is helping a customer in the coated paper segment substantially lower his total cost of operation.
Regularly consigning 400 tons of paper to scrap would put a dent in anyone’s bottom line. But until recently that was the operating reality for a BTG customer manufacturing fine paper in the 140-180gsm range, for whom intermittent scratches on the finished coated paper surface were causing thousands of euros worth of paper to be rejected every month.
Because streak frequency generally increased over time, our customer was in the habit of changing his tungsten metallic blade every 20 hours – an onerous and expensive process. An investigation by BTG engineers and several in-depth process analyses pointed to the new Duroblade-Omega™ as the solution. The switch to Duroblade on the mill’s 4-coater head machine yielded an immediate average reduction of intermittent streaks by as much as 40%. The mill quickly discovered that the result was even better on some paper grades, with an astounding reduction in streaks of up to 80%.
The move to Duroblade-Omega has cut paper waste caused by streaks by 30% across all grades, representing 100 tons of paper each month, for savings of around EUR 70,000.
In addition, improvements in coating quality delivered by the customer’s new Duroblade has extended the period between blade changes by 50%, from 20 to 30 hours.