“To get the capacity we needed, we had to install a very large boiler. That meant height as well as width when it came to capacity."
MATS STRÖMBERG
Senior Project Manager, KVV8
Identical COMPACT twins? HAI!
“Hai” is Japanese for the English word “Yes!” Corelex Shin-Ei recently started up two identical ANDRITZ tissue machines at its greenfield mill near Mount Fuji. The machines are “Robust. Efficient. Environmentally friendly. Easy-to-use.”
The Corelex Group started as a machinery company. In 1969, the decision was made to go into papermaking. That was the beginning of Corelex Shin-Ei, which makes toilet and facial tissue from recycled paper. “Our first product was Kurochiri, known as black tissue (although it was a gray in color),” says Satoshi Kurosaki, President of Corelex Shin-Ei. “It was produced from recycled newspapers and magazines. No deinking, just a pulper and a tissue machine.”
In 2014, the decision was made to consolidate production into one greenfield tissue mill in Fuji City (eastern Shizuoka Prefecture), near the base of Mount Fuji.
The two identical PrimeLineCOMPACT machines are designed for a speed of 1,800 m/min and for a paper width of 2.8.
A new kind of “converting”
The raw material for the mill comes from areas within 150 km, mainly collected by third-party companies. “But, we pick up papers containing potentially sensitive information ourselves from local governments, because we have the clearance to do this work,” Mr. Kurosaki says. “Technically speaking, we are converting discarded government documents into disposable tissue!”
The need for speed in Japan
The start-up of the twin ANDRITZ machines took place in spring 2015. Since then, the machines have reached speeds up to 1,900 m/min on 100% recycled fiber. “We can be proud of this, the fastest in Japan,” Mr. Kurosaki says.
“In addition to the speed, we are producing high-quality products from lower quality raw materials,” says Mr. Tanaka. “With ANDRITZ tissue machines, we are running at the highest speed level in Japan even utilizing recovered fiber. The line is very easy to operate even for new or inexperienced employees. We have only three operators per shift, thanks to the advanced ANDRITZ automation.”
Parent rolls of tissue.
(l-r) Toshio Okunishi of ANDRITZ and Takemi Tanaka of Corelex.
