2 A Royal Event for Board and Packaging Papers In early May 2001, under the motto “ahead, Voith Paper invited the manufacturers of board and packaging papers to Vienna to exchange their experiences and opinions. The list of the more than 400 partici- pants reads like the ‘Who’s Who’ of the board and packaging paper industry: The author: Over 250 top international managers Nicole Schnait, from the board and packaging paper Paper Machines Board and Packaging sector, as well as representatives of institutes, technical universities and representatives from the media had accepted the invitation to come to Vienna. A total of 40 countries were represented – from Australia to Canada, from Japan to Chile. Otto Heissenberger, President of the Board and Packaging 3 Paper Machine Division, and Dr. Hermut Kormann, Lunch was served in the newly renovated President of J.M. Voith Aktien- roof foyer of Vienna’s Hofburg Palace. gesellschaft, Heidenheim. Vienna’s Hofburg Palace provided a royal setting for the conference. In former times, the Hofburg Palace was the emperors’ winter residence. Today it houses the offices of the Austrian Federal President, the Spanish Riding School, the National Library, several museums and a modern conference centre. More than 350 guests from 40 countries attended the conference held in the ‘Großer Redoutensaal’. 4 On the evening before the conference, Otto Heissenberger, President of the Board and Packaging Paper Machine Division, welcomed the guests at a reception held at the Ferstel Palace. The evening’s entertainment was an 5 experience enjoyed by everyone. In the A ‘gemutlich’ evening at a ‘Heuriger’ with relaxing atmosphere, many attendees The spouses’ programme included a visit to typical ‘Schrammel’ folk music is an absolute also found the time to discuss future the imperial apartments in the Hofburg and the must in Vienna. plans and projects. Porcelain Manufactory Augarten. Three years had passed since the last Ⅲ What are the possibilities of multi-ply SAICA 3 in Spain, the fastest paper ma- “ahead Customer Conference was held in and multi-layer concepts, when are chine for corrugating medium, constantly 1998, focusing for the first time on the such concepts used today and what reports new speed world records. The topic of board and packaging papers – advantages do they offer for the pro- new production line for gypsum-grade and it was time for an update. duction of certain board or packaging paperboard, Lawton, Oklahoma, USA, is paper grades? the world’s first paper machine fitted with two gap formers. The fact that the Many investments were made by Voith Ⅲ What can be done to follow the trend shoe press technology has also gained a Paper during these three years, mainly towards higher speeds and lower basis firm foothold in the production of board to strengthen its process competence. weights of packaging papers? What was demonstrated by a report on the Today, papermakers have to re-think and are the possibilities to boost produc- BM 3 rebuild at Mayr-Melnhof, Frohn- optimize their complete production tion while enhancing quality when leiten, Austria. process to assure that their products are producing board? geared to market requirements at opti- mum cost effectiveness. Ⅲ How do investment cost and operating The guests’ expectations were high, and cost correlate, and how can a the participants this year were twice as machine’s total cost be minimized? many as during the “ahead 1998 Confer- Some changes were clearly visible, such ence. The numerous positive reactions, as the acquisition of the Scapa group, The papers focused both on concepts for the pleasant atmosphere during the con- which considerably strengthened the new production lines and on possible ference and the fact that the large confer- Voith Paper Service Division and made upgrading through rebuilds. Moreover, ence room was packed full until the last Voith Fabrics one of the major manufac- several “smart solutions” were present- paper was read, showed that the Vienna turers of paper machine clothing. ed, allowing the papermaker to achieve conference was worth visiting. lasting improvements in machine perfor- mance with small investment budgets In other areas, such as research and de- and minimum amortization times. In closing, a small, but unique, thank- velopment, Voith Paper has also focused you gift was presented. Each participant on strengthening its process compe- received a ‘take-away’ paper machine. tence. The following topics were inter- Highlighted on the agenda were the pa- The simple design, ab- linked throughout each paper being pre- pers on new reference plants. During solutely maintenance- sented at the “ahead 2001 Conference: “ahead 1998, several new components free and environ- and machine concepts specifically devel- mentally friend- oped for board and packaging papers had ly, was received Ⅲ How do the raw materials used, the been presented, such as the gap formers, with great enthu- stock preparation equipment, the DuoFormer™ Base and DuoFormer™ Top. siasm. paper machine components and fol- This time, five customers demonstrated lowing process stages interact with how these concepts had successfully “ahead on the Internet: one another during operation of a been put into practice, giving current fig- All papers and the best photos of the conference board or packaging paper production ures to substantiate their reports. can be found on the “ahead homepage: line and how can such interaction be Simply download at: www.ahead.voithpaper.com utilized to achieve an optimum The papers presented at the conference can also be requested from: product? Some of the production lines discussed Ms Sigrid Hrebacka, Fax: +43 27 42 8 06 25 48 have revolutionized the industry: PM 9 at E-mail: [email protected] 6 Our guests’ opinions Ing. product. It was a highlight for me not Henk Lingbeek only in technical respects, but also be- SCA Packaging De cause it focused on the tasks of our Pekka Mauranen Hoop, Netherlands product. KCL, Finland It was an excellent conference, and what ... Whether I will come again? Yes, of I come from the Finnish research insti- I liked especially – I also attended the course, we already agreed yesterday that, tute KCL and have to admire your team. conference three years ago – was the if things go on like this, Voith can hold Listening to all of the papers about the combination of topics: not only technical such a meeting every week! different products, I realize how deep issues, but also some dealing with mar- their expertise is in this field. keting, final products, Voith Paper's phi- losophy and organization. I think Voith has done extensive theoreti- cal research and development work and has applied the results in practice on the pilot machine and in customers’ mills… Peter Reichler Amcor Australasia, ...Of course, the location is very impres- Australia sive, this imperial palace... Dipl. Ing. (FH) I think it was a very impressive confer- ...I think it's a world-class conference! Manfred Stemmer ence, you have picked a beautiful loca- Cascades Arnsberg tion, even the weather is impressive. GmbH, Germany What pleased me more than anything else was the quality of the presentation and My general impression is a very positive the information provided... one, we gained new ideas and thoughts, and moreover, it was a good opportunity ... It was very pleasing that the informa- to talk with many colleagues. tion was prepared in a way that even the non-technical people, such as myself, T.S. Ong What impressed me most was the profes- could understand... Genting Sanyen, sionalism of the presentations. Malaysia ... The paper on investment and operating ...An important thing is that people with cost yesterday and of course the two pre- The conference was well organized, and I practical experience were present, report- sentations of the new mills in Turkey and think the topics were well chosen, partic- ing about their experiences... SAICA were most interesting!… ularly on the first day. The quality of the papers, in general, was good – ’they were ...What I also liked very much, as I come ...I do have to express my appreciation of presented by many of the young people. I from the folding boxboard sector myself, the Voith team – they have done a fabu- think there is a bright future ahead be- was the first paper giving entirely new lous job! cause Voith is capable of renewing itself aspects of the publicity value of our with these young specialists... News FROM StoffaufbereitungTHE DIVISIONS 7 Stock preparation – the key to ensure the productivity of newsprint and SC paper machines The Federal Republic of Germany holds What is the present situation in the use a top position in Europe with regard to of recovered papers in the field of graphi- the use of secondary fibers for the man- cal papers? ufacture of paper and board products. The rate of utilisation of recovered Fig. 1 shows the relative recovered paper paper is presently 62%. For Germany, contents for the most important graphi- this ratio is expected to be increased cal, wood-containing paper grades. The further, which will lead to a further abscissa in this diagram represents the reduction in fresh fiber usage. quality whereas the ordinate stands for The author: the price achieved with these products. Harald Selder, The red field describes the average, rela- Fiber Systems tive recovered paper content used in It is known that the largest quantities of these products. recovered paper are used in the field of packaging papers. In this product sector, Today, the standard newsprint paper is signs of maximization have already be- usually made from 100% deinked pulp come apparent, so that in this sector no (DIP). The same applies for upgraded increase in the use of recovered paper newsprint. In the SC paper sector, 40% is to be expected.