Pulp Mill Services Division

Profile

The Pulp Mill Services Division encompasses the service activities for the Wood Processing, Fiberline, Chemical Systems, and Recovery Divisions.  Primary emphasis is on production efficiency and availability services to woodyards and kraft pulp mills supplied either by Andritz or other equipment manufacturers.

The Division helps customers get maximum production efficiency from their machines and processes.

Today, there is more emphasis on Overall Production Efficiency (OPE^®) of a mill’s machinery throughout its lifetime.  The Division supplies full-service contracts for OPE^® for continuous improvement and optimization of mill operations - from single machines to process lines to entire pulp mills. In addition, the Division provides traditional services, such as field services, rebuilds and upgrades of equipment, and replacement parts or engineered wear products.

The Division is headquartered in Savonlinna, Finland.  It operates through service centers worldwide shared with the Paper Mill Services Division, providing fast and responsive attention to local customers.

Production facilities for rebuilds are located in Finland, Austria, and the USA, but the Division also offers services through its partner workshops in many other countries.

Business Development

The increase in pulp prices enabled mills to direct more of their operating budgets to maintenance and equipment optimization, favorably affecting the service business. The positive development took place especially in the second Half of the year in Northern Europe, Southeast Asia, and North America.  

The Division continued its growth through acquisitions and developing its sales/service network to meet customers’ needs.  Service resources were added in South America, and Asia. Demand for OPE^® service contracts continued in Europe, South America, and Asia.  

In North America, HQ-Plus™ knife systems for chippers were introduced.

Andritz acquired Acutest Oy, a Finnish company using acoustic condition monitoring technology to detect cracks, leaks, friction, and load in process equipment.  This strengthens the Division’s offerings in predictive maintenance and on-line diagnostics.

Major Orders

• The Division booked the largest OPE^® service contract ever for the recovery and energy block at Portucel’s Setubal mill in Portugal.  The order was the second for the same customer, and OPE^® now covers the whole mill.

• The Division booked several significant orders for recovery boiler upgrades using the Vertical Air™ system, such as orders from IP Kwidzyn in Poland, UPM-Kymmene Kaukas in Finland, and Södra Cell Mörrum in Sweden.  The Vertical Air™ upgrade provides remarkable improvements to operational efficiency and emissions of recovery boilers.

• The Division booked several orders for rebuilds of feeders for continuous digesters around the world, such as from Indah Kiat, Perawang, Indonesia, SCA Packaging Munksund AB, Sweden, and Neusiedler Syktyvkar, Russia.

• The Division booked its largest HQ-Plus™ chipper knife system order with Bowater in Calhoun, TN, USA.

Research and Development

In the Pulp Mill Services Division, major R&D programs centered around improving the operational reliability of Andritz equipment throughout its entire life cycle.  The programs were conducted in cooperation with customers and Andritz divisions responsible for capital equipment.  New measurement points and methods help operators and maintenance people determine the condition of their operating equipment, and plan more accurately the maintenance actions.

On-line diagnostics was further developed. By bringing the products of Acutest to the product family, Andritz now provides a wide variety of different measurement and analyzing methods to control the operations of equipment and processes. Acutest’s extensive development program includes projects for a new generation of sensors and data acquisition. Additionally, new industrial applications have been developed.

For filter washers, new wash water piping solutions have improved the washing performance of the equipment. For Drum Displacement (DD) washers, innovations have improved the operating reliability and lengthened the period between necessary maintenance actions.

For chippers, Andritz has developed a new chip sampler/analyzer, which helps control chip quality on-line and, accordingly, the whole chipping process. For debarking drums, Andritz has developed a new DSD (Differential Speed Detection) system for preventing damage to the support ring and wheel.