News | September 10, 1998

Klabin Installing New-technology Board Coater/Kitchen at Brazil Mill

Klabin Fabricadora de Papel e Celulose SA is installing a new, advanced-technology, liquid packaging board coater at its Monte Alegre mill in the town of Telemaco Borba in the Parana State of Brazil, about 650 km southwest of Sao Paulo.

The $13 million unit, recently ordered from Valmet Corp. of Finland, is scheduled to startup in the summer of 1999. The on-machine coater is being installed on PM 7, which was originally built in the 1970s. The No. 7 machine's web width is 248 in. and its speed after startup of the new coater will range from 2,133 ft/min to 2,460 ft/min, depending on the end product. It will produce boards with basis weights from 150g/m2 to 380 g/m2.

Based on Valmet's newest liquid packaging board coating technology, the coater is equipped with a two-sided SymSizer for pre-coating and backside treatment. Topside coating will be done with Valmet's recently introduced OptiCoat Duo coating station, which has two backing rolls and a jet nozzle. The combination of a SymSizer and an OptiCoat Duo coating station allows the Monte Alegre mill to flexibly alter coating amounts and, if necessary, to achieve high coat weights, without compromising coating quality and runnability.

Included in the project is a Valmet coating color kitchen, air systems, dryers and pulpers. A comprehensive training and startup program is also included. Valmet's coaters and reels unit at Jarvenpaa, Finland, has principal responsibility for the delivery, with several other Finnish units of Valmet also participating.

In making the coater decision, Klabin placed great emphasis on an extensive triple trial-run program, in which several major paper machine manufacturers participated. Results of the trial-run program, together with test performance on Valmet's new pilot OptiCoater, were key considerations in choosing the Valmet system, the mill reports.

Klabin's South American Operations

Klabin is South America's largest enterprise integrating all aspects of the forest industry. The corporation owns some 340,000 hectares of forest, about 221,000 hectares of which are plantations. Pine and eucalyptus are the principal species.

Klabin also has an advanced environmental protection program, which started as early as the 1940s. As part of the program, it has set aside about 83,000 hectares of its own forest, which form the most important unified nature reserve in the Parana State.

In Brazil, Klabin produces pulp, paper, and board, along with various converting operations in a total of 21 business units. In addition, it has three forest units complete with nurseries. Altogether, Klabin has 8,650 employees, with another 5,200 employed indirectly through business partners. In 1997, the company's net sales exceeded $1.1 billion, and it produced about 1.3 million m.t. of pulp, paper, and board.