The World's Largest Paper Making Machine

by Peter Lillqvist, Area Manager, Moog Finland

The concept of the printed word on paper might not have changed much since the Gutenberg Bible was produced in 1455 but production techniques have changed fundamentally. The average person frequently encounters the incredible range of magazines available at their local newsagent today. This proliferation and the extremely high quality of paper and reproduction are the result of recent developments in digital layouts, printing, and paper making machinery. One of the companies that has contributed notably to this change is the Metso Corporation with its headquarters in Finland. Northern Europeans are in the forefront of both forest production and conservation, so it is no coincidence that one of the foremost paper machine manufacturers is located in this part of the world.

Although paper making techniques have been refined in the last 20 years, the basic concept is still the same. You take paper pulp and pass it through multiple rolls to squeeze out the liquid and then dry it to produce paper. Sounds easy! Well, modern paper machines such as the PM12 currently being installed at Kvarnsveden in Sweden are 300 meters (985 ft.) long, 70 meters (230 ft.) wide and 30 meters (99 ft.) high. It has a calender width of 11.3 meters (37.1 ft.) and a machine speed of 2,000 m. (6,560 ft.) per minute, which will make it the world's largest paper machine. When in operation at the end of 2005, PM12 will produce 420,000 tons of paper per year, which will increase the capacity at Kvarnsveden to over 1 million tons per year. This is equivalent to 2 kilograms (4.41 lbs.) of paper per European. It utilises 15,000 control elements handling 75,000 control signals and operates six shifts with only 9 operators per shift. This kind of machine is considered to be as technically sophisticated as a modern Jumbo Jet.

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