With Nidec Leroy-Somer,
Ahlstrom-Munksjö consolidates
its attachment to the local
economy and wins export markets
Meeting market expectations… keeping electronics and aeronautics, offering course of manufacture, at very high
at the head of the pack of innovators in rapidly expanding markets for this plant, speed between the steel rollers (situated
its field… always serving its customers which exports the world over. transversally the length of the machine)
better. To keep pace with its order
through 4 production stations aligned
book and pursue its development, the GIANT-SIZED… Ahlstrom Specialties plant at Saint- To set the scene, picture a rectilinear (coating, drying, finishing, winding). In
Séverin in Charente has recently been machine, several meters wide, several this enormous machine, the transverse
expanded. This allows it to play its part meters high, and around 100 meters rollers serve to propel the paper strip and
fully in the dynamics of its employment long. At one end of the machine you have regulate its tension (it must not be torn)
catchment area. The plant today a spool unwinder from which emerges along a perfectly managed production run.
comprises four complete manufacturing a strip of paper two to three meters lines, and all four are comprehensively wide, and measuring just several tens equipped with Nidec Leroy-Somer of microns thick. This strip of paper then motors. Let us consider why. passes between hundreds of steel rollers,
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
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
over a distance of around 100 meters
… 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
unwound at the start of the parameters such as humidity level and
field. Its main clients are principally to be line to being wound onto a drum at the the highest operational uniformity of the
found in the sectors of the food industry, end of the line the paper travels, in the motors and geared motors involved in
in the production of parchment paper.
The site is indeed the world leader in its
porosity. Just as important is to ensure
rotating the drive rollers.
MAINTAINING CONTROL OVER YOUR
PRODUCTION FACILITIES
The Ahlstrom Specialties plant has
chosen to design and manufacture
its machines itself, and to draw on
local players in this endeavour. “We
take great care with the quality of our
products and with controlling our costs,”
explains Gérard Giry, Maintenance
and Engineering Manager at Ahlstrom
Specialties. He adds: “We need to have
complete control over our production
line.”
22 FDPP - www.fdpp.co.uk