FlowScanner at Suzano Cerrado Brazil

Suzano’s Cerrado project outside of Ribas do Rio Pardo in Brazil. Photo: Suzano.

In 2022, Andritz Technologies received orders for two extra-large FlowScanners that would handle raw material flows on high-bandwidth conveyor belts, one from Suzano in Brazil and one from a customer in Asia. The development of these has now led to the third and largest FlowScanner model, the FS3000, which can handle bandwidths up to 3000 mm.

Suzano’s FS3000 left Sweden at the turn of January-February 2024 and at the end of March Masoud Salavati and his colleague from Finnish Andritz OY went to Brazil to lead the installation of the equipment.

-These mills are gigantic. As far as you can see, there are people working. You must have a car to get around the mill area, explains Masoud Salavati, Operations and R&D Manager at Andritz Technologies, who has returned from Suzano Cerrado in Brazil. Suzano is one of the world’s largest pulp producers and Cerrado is their new mill that is now being completed in Brazil. Andritz is the main supplier and the analysis equipment FlowScanner FS3000 from Andritz Technologies – ATAB is one of the components delivered and now installed.

Unpacking and assembly of the FS3000 in Brazil.

Large employer and local wood raw material

The construction of Suzano Cerrado has employed 10,000 people over the past two years. When suppliers and contracted personnel leave after completion, close to 6,000 people will work at the mill. It is a very large employer in the region. Eucalyptus is grown in the immediate area, which is the mill’s raw material.

– When we first developed FlowScanner, it was to analyze pine and spruce in Europe, explains Max Gerger, CEO of Mantex. Since then, FlowScanner has mainly analyzed spruce in North America and most recently eucalyptus in Brazil. Eucalyptus is fast-growing and can be felled already after about 7 years, unlike our spruce and pine, which take 70-80 years.

FlowScanner is manufactured in Sweden

All FlowScanners are built in Sweden by ATAB in collaboration with contract manufacturer Högbloms Legomontage in Vallentuna. Detectors and X-ray sources are tuned and the equipment is finally tested. It is then disassembled into a few large blocks, packed in large boxes and shipped to the customer.

-Our smallest machine FS1200 can now be installed by Andritz themselves locally at the customer’s location and we can provide support via remote connection. But with new models, we always have to be on site during the installation, explains Masoud. The new FS3000 is truly in a class of its own.

The installation on site at the customer takes about 4-5 weeks for the large FS3000, about 1-2 weeks for the smaller FS1200. This is followed by so-called commissioning, i.e. connection with the mill’s control system as well as trimming and calibration of the equipment for the wood raw material to be analyzed. Commissioning normally takes 1-3 months.

At Suzano Cerrado, the commissioning phase has now begun and the equipment is expected to be put into operation after the summer when the other parts of the mill are finished.

-The trend for new mills being built is increasingly towards large mills with very large mass flows and large production capacity. For such facilities, our FS3000 will be needed. Existing mills are often smaller, and one of the smaller FS1200 or FS2000 models is often sufficient there, says Max in conclusion.

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