"The heart of the machine – the Yankee – is of special importance in ensuring quality and maintaining efficient production."
Nataša Iršič Bedenik
Head of R&D and Quality Management
Paloma Hygienic Paper
Healthy heart - long, productive life
The Yankee cylinder is the heart of a tissue machine. To keep the heart of their machines healthy, Slovenian tissue producer Paloma Hygienic Paper relies on on-site Yankee service from ANDRITZ.
Paloma Hygienic Paper, with its headquarters in Sladki Vrh in Slovenia, has more than 140 years’ experience in the production of high-quality hygiene papers. Today, the company is a leading supplier in the Adriatic region and Central Europe. Annual production is more than 70,000 tonnes in the form of kitchen rolls, paper handkerchiefs, paper napkins, medical towels, and different kinds of toilet paper.
Nataša Iršič Bedenik is Head of R&D and Quality Management at Paloma. “Most consumers do not think of high-technology when they think of everyday tissue; they only know the softness and quality in their hands,” Bedenik says. “We focus on the technology and know that quality and softness are established in the first few production steps. The heart of the machine – the Yankee – is of special importance in ensuring quality.”
Heart-healthy maintenance
Just like a human heart, the operation of a tissue machine (steam, rotation, temperature, line loads) can put a Yankee under considerable stress. These stresses can, unfortunately, lead to Yankee failures. Because of this, the Yankee requires monitoring and regular maintenance.
“Our core competence is the development and production of tissue -- not the service of tissue machines,” Bedenik says. “We became aware of ANDRITZ’s on-site Yankee service and their view of the Yankee performance in the context of the entire production line. We share that view. That is what led us to select ANDRITZ as our strategic service partner.”
Starting with an audit
ANDRITZ was first brought in to audit the performance of one of the tissue machines at the Sladki Vrh mill prior to a rebuild. According to Wolfgang Herbst, Sales Engineer for Paper Machine Service and Spare Parts, ANDRITZ services include on-site checks, measurements, and performance tests.
One of the measurements that ANDRITZ specialists perform is an on-the-run (OTR) profile measurement to monitor the surface wear of the Yankee at production speeds. “Our measurements and tests indicate the proper time to grind the Yankee to minimize material removal,” Herbst says. “We do this on-site to reduce machine downtime.”
ANDRITZ’s first project was the on-site grinding and coating of the cast Yankee for TM3 in 2016. This met with Paloma’s complete satisfaction. An order to service TM5’s cast Yankee quickly followed.
Throughout a long, productive life
ANDRITZ services all types of Yankee cylinders -- for tissue or paper machines, MG paper, tobacco, steel or cast iron, old or new – from any OEM.
The work with ANDRITZ represents Paloma’s first strategic partner for maintenance and service. “This is not something so traditional in our country,” Bedenik says. “But, the service work here showed their depth of expertise. We really appreciate the willingness of ANDRITZ specialists to transfer their knowledge to our people. Their speed of response to our needs or questions is excellent.”
Paloma is confident it has found a reliable service partner in ANDRITZ. “They will work with us well into the future to optimize and continuously improve our production which will improve the quality of our products,” Bedenik says.
"From initial calculations to grinding/coating to optimization, our services substantially extend the useful life of the Yankee."
Wolfgang Herbst
Sales Engineer for Paper Machine Service and Spare Parts, ANDRITZ AG
| ANDRITZ Yankee Service |
| Mechanical on-site services grinding, coating, leakage repairs, nip calibration, doctor blade adjustment, etc. |
| Consultation drying system, heat recovery, energy savings, runnability, etc. |
| Troubleshooting surface inspection, steam and condensate, automation, dewatering, chemicals, etc. |
| Inspections and measurements pressure testing, OTR, finite element analysis, acoustic measurement for crack detection, etc. |
