With Nidec Leroy-Somer, Ahlstrom-
Munksjö consolidates its attachment to the
local economy and wins export markets
M
eeting market expectations…
keeping at the head of the
pack of innovators in its field…
always serving its customers better. To
keep pace with its order book and pursue
its development, the Ahlstrom Specialties
plant at Saint-Séverin in Charente has
recently been expanded. This allows it
to play its part fully in the dynamics of
its employment catchment area. The
plant today comprises four complete
manufacturing lines, and all four are
comprehensively equipped with Nidec
Leroy-Somer motors. Let us consider why.
Ahlstrom-Munksjö produces fibre-based
materials and special innovative and
ecological papers. It is the leading
industrial group in its field, with its
HQ in Finland. The group employs
8000 members of staff and operates
45 production units in 14 countries. In
France, its Saint-Séverin site (in the south
of the Charente department) specialises
in the production of parchment paper.
The site is indeed the world leader in its
field. Its main clients are principally to be
found in the sectors of the food industry,
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electronics and aeronautics, offering
rapidly expanding markets for this plant,
which exports the world over.
GIANT- SIZED…
To set the scene, picture a rectilinear
machine, several meters wide, several
meters high, and around 100 meters long.
At one end of the machine you have a
spool unwinder from which emerges
a strip of paper two to three meters
wide, and measuring just several tens of
microns thick. This strip of paper then
passes between hundreds of steel rollers,
which convey the paper strip while
ensuring that it remains at the correct
tension right along the production line.
As it zigzags through the machine, the
paper strip covers a total distance of
more than 200 meters, moving at a speed
of several meters per second.
Without going into detail in this article,
suffice it to say that from the sheet
being unwound at the start of the line
to being wound onto a drum at the
end of the line the paper travels, in
the course of manufacture, at very high
speed between the steel rollers (situated
transversally the length of the machine)
through 4 production stations aligned
over a distance of around 100 meters
(coating, drying, finishing, winding). In
this enormous machine, the transverse
rollers serve to propel the paper strip and
regulate its tension (it must not be torn)
along a perfectly managed production
run.
… WITH REAL FINESSE
Needless to say, the perfect
synchronisation of the rotation of these
rollers is one of the keys to success. The
slightest unexpected speed deviation
with a single one of these rollers would
cause the paper strip in production
to tear, with a major impact on the
production costs. In short, to manufacture
high-quality, hi-tech paper it takes fine-
scale control, in the very heart of the
machine while manufacturing progresses,
of parameters such as humidity level and
porosity. Just as important is to ensure
the highest operational uniformity of the
motors and geared motors involved in
rotating the drive rollers.