Kruger Forced to Partially Shut Down Its Brompton Mill

Clearwater Paper Corporation announced the indefinite closure of its Neenah, Wisconsin facility, which includes three tissue machines and ten converting lines, removing a total paper production capacity of approximately 54,000 tons. Clearwater Paper intends to indefinitely close Neenah and exit the away from home business by the end of July 2021. “Despite the best efforts of our dedicated employees, our Neenah location and assets cannot cost effectively compete in the markets that we serve,” said Arsen Kitch, president and chief executive officer. “This was a difficult decision, because it affects our people, their families and the Neenah community.” The facility’s approximately 290 employees will be impacted by the closure.

International technology group ANDRITZ has successfully improved performance of the pulp mill at Mondi Frantschach by implementing new advanced process controls. The target was to reduce the variability of Kappa, an indication of the lignin content in the pulp, in order to run the process a step closer to its maximum specification limits. This measure leads to higher production efficiency in the mill because less wood is needed to produce the same amount of pulp. As part of the optimization project, ANDRITZ Automation commissioned and fine-tuned three advanced process controls (APCs) in Mondi´s continuous cooking process. The controls implemented, including the chip level control for digester and impregnation vessel, the digester H-factor control (kinetic model for the rate of delignification in kraft pulping) and the blow-flow consistency control, were fully developed with Metris X – the distributed control system (DCS) developed by ANDRITZ Automation to simplify operational complexity, lower project risk, and improve plant performance. Metris X is a key application of the Metris UX Platform, a state-of-the-art digitalization platform that enables full functionality and support for industrial plants throughout their entire life cycle.

Lecta is pleased to announce the launch of its new ​Termax range of high substance thermal papers, designed specifically for ticketing applications. This new product offering is designed to meet the growing demands for quality and durability for a wide range of applications in admission and access control ticketing for events, transportation tickets, boarding passes, parking lot tickets, data carrier tags for product identification and tracking in the supply chain and logistics and supermarket shelf labels, among others. The new Termax products include Termax TFX (phenol-free) and Termax TFS (BPA-free) papers, available from 105 to 130 g/m2, and the top coated Termax TC30X (phenol-free) paper, available from 115 to 135 g/m2. These papers are characterized by their excellent pre-printing on both sides, and their high thermal image stability and durability.