The European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers (FEFCO) held its first online technical workshop yesterday (23rd February) entitled ‘Sophisticated fortune telling – monitoring and controlling our production processes’.
Over 280 participants registered and tuned in live to the online event. Speakers from various companies and countries shared their latest innovations and gave valuable insights on how to increase production efficiency and how to get the optimum product quality from corrugated board.
The online workshop brought together suppliers and manufacturers of the corrugated industry; presenters were recorded while replying live to the audience questions.
Eleni Despotou, FEFCO Secretary General opened the workshop and thanked the FEFCO Production Committee for its input for the programme, the speakers, and the sponsors, EFI and Valmet.
The morning session focused on optimisation of processes in monitoring and quality control of the corrugator (the machine to create sheets of corrugated board). Exciting new developments but also practical applications regarding paper and board temperature and moisture control, close loop quality control through online measurements, innovations in process monitoring, microwave techniques and the latest research developments in moisture sensitivity of paper.
The afternoon session highlighted developments on monitoring and quality control for the converting machines. Print inspections and print control on the converting machines were one of the themes. Another was the inline inspection on folding quality and gap control. Speakers also discussed the loss of compression during the converting process, and how to monitor it. These are all enablers for waste reduction and product quality improvement.
FEFCO Production Committee chaired by Marc Van Damme developed the full concept and programme of the workshop. In the closing address he thanked all companies and speakers who shared their innovations and experience in the field as well as the FEFCO Secretariat in charge of the organisation.