Six months ago, the Operations Manager of Hamburger-Container in Europe, Mr Leitner, agreed to a trial and demonstration of a new-to-world technology – the PSM-Q on-line stiffness tester - developed and built by Aurelia Group. The technology provides a continuous, non-destructive measurement of paper quality – reporting common paper properties like ring crush, tensile strength and CMT at 2 second intervals as the paper is produced.
“We decided to investigate the topic ‘Recording the tensile strength’ of paper types, where we wanted to better understand the influences on it. The aim was to compare the strength values determined by the PMS-Q sensor with our laboratory values and to determine the quality of correlation. The result was impressive right from the start and based on these findings we decided to carry out another test with different settings. For example, we defined the input in the form of raw material quality, specific grinding capacity (refining) and changes in the headbox outlet ratio in a scheduled test plan and carried out the trials together with Aurelia”, says Leitner.
The measurement has shown itself to be very reliable and because of its unique measurement approach is largely self-cleaning even on fully recycled fibre sheets.
Mr Leitner noted, “The big advantage is, of course, that interventions in stock preparation or on the paper machine can be recognised directly from the real-time trends and you do not have to wait for the reel change or laboratory values. We see great further potential in the area of starch and other additives and intend to implement corresponding optimisations.”
After undertaking the planned trials, Mr Leitner observed, “The results were extremely positive in all test series and the PSM-Q sensor reflected the measured strength values from the laboratory with a correlation giving an r2 > 95%. In addition, we were already able to determine with these first tests that we were not always energy-efficient in refining and were able to reduce the specific refiningenergy saving energy immediately.”
Hamburger-Container’s confidence in the PSM-Q has grown to such an extent that they have now installed the measurement on a second machine to investigate how the PSM-Q can aid in optimizing and maximising both the performance of the company’s papers and the cost of production.