Chitianhua - BAMBOO TIGERS

Situated quite some distance away from any mass industrial developments or highly populated conurbations is Taison Group’s Guizhou Chitianhua Paper Industry’s tissue mill near the town of Chishui in southwestern China. General Manager at Guizhou Chitianhua tissue mill, Wang Hongwei, says, “The Taison Group will reach a total capacity of 5 million tonnes this year; however, with our ongoing expansion plans throughout the group, we will reach 8 million tonnes a year by 2020, making us one of the largest producers of paper, board, and tissue in China.”

IDENTICAL TWINS – TM5 AND TM6

When the Taison Group took over the mill, ANDRITZ was chosen as supplier for two identical tissue machines, PrimeLineSTs with design speeds of 2,000 m/min and a width of 5.6 m each. “ANDRITZ is clearly seen as the No. 1 supplier by the Taison Group,” says Wang Hongwei. “The management at the group wanted the very best and most modern machines, which is why ANDRITZ was chosen.

“Another reason ANDRITZ was selected was for its vast experience in producing tissue out of bamboo pulp,” adds Hong. The mill uses about 70% bamboo pulp as raw material with the other 30% made from softwood market pulp.

Along with the two PrimeLineST tissue machines, ANDRITZ also supplied two complete stock preparation lines. Wang Junling, ANDRITZ (China) Pulp and Paper Technology Start-up Engineer, says, “Using bamboo as a raw material to produce tissue throws up a number of challenges regarding stock preparation, in particular, regarding refining. Bamboo pulp has shorter fibers and is therefore weaker than wood fiber. To make sure we meet the raw material requirements at the mill, TwinFlo-Strong refiners with higher motor power, lower flow, and matched refiner fillings were installed.”

The tissue machines were the first of their kind delivered in China to combine high performance PrimeDry Steel Yankees with steam-heated hoods. The Yankees are made entirely of steel and have a diameter of 20 feet – among the largest in the world for tissue. Both Yankee cylinders are manufactured at the ANDRITZ steel Yankee business center in Foshan, China, which offers customers state-of-the-art manufacturing, local field service, and quality management.

The maintenance of steam-heated hoods challenged the efficiency of tissue machines in the past. To solve this problem, ANDRITZ delivered a new design: The PrimeDry Hood ST is equipped with double-width nozzle boxes for easy maintenance, where each nozzle has its own cleaning port. The hood offers optimized impingement pattern and an open area for efficient drying at minimum dust accumulation.

Along with the stock preparation line and tissue machine, ANDRITZ also supplied automation with its tailored system for tissue PrimeControl, including DCS and QCS, as well as all erection and commissioning services.

Contracts were signed for TM5 and TM6 in December 2015 and commissioning took place respectively in July and September 2017. TM5 started up in August 2017 followed by TM6 in October.

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

General Manager Wang Hongwei says that there is still a lot of further scope for expansion at the mill, “Our bamboo pulping operation is running at full capacity of 256,000 tonnes a year, and we are only using half of that pulp on TM5 and TM6, the rest of the pulp is sold onto the market. Our plan is to use all that pulp at this mill for our own products, making us even more of a cost leader and capturing even more market share.

“ANDRITZ, of course, will also be joining us in our success!”

To underline the Taison Group’s expansion plan, it has already ordered another four tissue lines from ANDRITZ.

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