Paperboard producer standardizes operations with ABB’s next generation L&W Autoline for rapid, consistent measurements to ensure long-term process optimization and quality
ABB will provide the paperboard producer Metsä Board with its L&W Autoline automated paper testing solution at five of the group’s mills in Finland: Kemi, Kyro, Simpele, Tako and Äänekoski.
Metsä Board is standardizing its operations with ABB’s L&W Autoline, which has a recently enhanced design that requires less service while increasing uptime. Plus, L&W Autoline measures according to testing standards, minimizing the needs for correlation to lab instruments.
Headquartered in Finland, Metsä Board is a leading European producer of premium fresh fibre paperboards and is taking this step with its continuous assessment of operations, efficiencies and minimizing environmental impacts in mind. The company produces premium lightweight folding boxboards, food service boards and white kraftliners for consumer goods packaging as well as retail-ready and food service applications. ABB’s automated paper testing solution will help the company meet its broader production and sustainable development targets.
ABB and Metsä Board have worked together on numerous projects over the years; this latest group of orders builds on this history of successful collaboration with a solution known to reduce testing time by up to 90 percent compared with manual testing.
“ABB has proven that with this latest technology that they can enable us to reach new levels of performance in our board mills,” said Ville Jokinen, quality engineer at Metsä Board’s Tako mill. “It is with this confidence that we install L&W Autoline across our sites to maximize our investment and achieve the returns in quality and efficiencies, which will help us meet our objectives of using materials and energy resources wisely.”
“We have worked closely with Metsä Board over the years and have helped them achieve and maintain their high quality standards and address their sustainability themes around raw materials and supply chain, products and services, resource efficiency and environmental impacts, and stakeholders and social impacts,” said Per Sandstrom, head of lab and process testing measurements for ABB Pulp and Paper. “L&W Autoline’s ability to quickly deliver results helps to rapidly enable smart decision-making and apply process adjustments to ensure that all quality specifications across these mills continue to be met.”
ABB’s latest L&W Autoline is 10 times faster than manual testing, enabling rapid reduction of off-spec production. Scalable to fit any lab and extremely easy to use, the system incorporates a unique, visual touchscreen interface, requiring minimal training. Other features include the smoothest and most reliable feeding system on the market to minimize jamming; a unique dual test function to reduce queuing by allowing simultaneous testing; high-volume information storage, enabling identification of quality trends over time; and real-time visualization, providing direct feedback to operators on the unit and throughout the mill.
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