Introducing a more stable pulp production process with less waste, higher yield and fewer stoppages.

Flow scanner © ANDRITZ

How does a Mantex Flow Scanner help pulp and paper production?

The wood chips used in pulp production have natural variations in moisture and density. The amount of water and bone dry fibre entering the process will vary. On-line and real-time measurement of all the wood chips before they enter the pulp process makes automatic feed-forward adjustments possible. The result is a more stable process with more pulp produced at the desired quality.  Oh with less chemical consumption and with unwanted objects detected before they cause damage. 

More about pulp

Stabilised pulp process means more revenue

Pulp is measured with a Kappa meter and produced according to the end product requirements. Fine photocopy paper might have a Kappa of 20-30 whilst box-board cartons might have a Kappa around 100. The pulp production team strives to meet the required target Kappa with as much stability as possible. Why is kappa stability the holy grail for process engineers and fibreline managers? Well not just because it means less problems and stoppages and an easier life. If more pulp conforms to the target kappa there will be more premium grade pulp produced.

Reduce bottlenecks – increase pulp production

The cooking chemicals used in the digester can be recycled by the recovery boiler. An ingenious device that burns the lignin from the wood for energy and leaves the residue for further processing and to be returned to the cooking plant again. If the recovery boiler is the bottleneck that is limiting production ( and it often is) reducing the cooking chemicals and a stabilised Kappa will also mean an increase in productivity. A more constant flow of lignin to the recovery cycle will allow it to be operated close to its maximum potential. An imbalance in the cooking process can cause a backlog in the recovery cycle  and the production rate decreased until removed. Forehand knowledge of changes to the raw materials permits compensation of the cooking liquors to minimise such disturbances. The more accurate raw material information also enables lower safety margins with less cooking liquor and bleaching chemicals required.

 

 

Improve yield, increase income.

If the kappa stability can be improved the target Kappa can be increased without detriment to the rest of the fibreline process. That is to say that with less Kappa variation the target Kappa can be increased such that the higher Kappa values are the same as before. The serious financial benefits can be counted in wood savings or improved yield for more pulp. The Flow Scanner makes this possible.

Less downtime, more production time, more money

Performance of pumps and filters and other production equipment is reduced by rocks, stones, sand and other hard objects. The Flow scanners ability to detect many foreign objects for an automatic removal system to function is shown to bring tangible pulp mill performance improvements. As well as maintenance cost savings and leaving engineers free to work on other projects.

Protection for the wood chipper

Industrial log chippers are precision machines designed to produce chips with consistency and reliability. So a rock in the log flow can impact chip quality or cause a full production stop.  What if there was an alarm for any rocks and metals in, under, or over the logs? And a picture for the operator to immediately see anything.

Saving time and money

The Log Scanner is similar to the baggage scanner at an airport. Place it before the chipper and it will warn for those items that would cause expensive damage and impact chip quality. Just like the airport scanner the operator has a screen to see the image of the items highlighted. He or she can then instantly decide whether to override and continue production or to stop and remove the item. In this way time is saved searching for hidden items and false alarms.

 

We are really seeing the benefit of coupling the Flow Scanner's foreign object detection to the automatic removal system we installed last year. Christer Jonsson, Domsjö Fabriker

Some other really great features

Real-time and online

Mantex Flow and Log Scanners measure 1000 times per second and deliver live information updated every second. Integrated directly into the pulp process it will ensure the system can cope with any changes in the material.

Winter-proof

Frozen chips or logs? X-rays interact on an atomic level – that is to say based on the number of atoms present. It is not affected by the state of the atoms be it liquid, solid, or gas. So ice and snow are indeed measured as water.

100% material scanning

The Flow and Log Scanner x-ray beams cover the entire width of the belt with rapid detection units to ensure all material is detected.

Auto-calibration

We understand that keeping an instrument at the highest accuracy and in top working order is critical if it is used for on-line control. What a relief then to know that the Mantex scanners automatically trim and reset themselves. No daily time consuming laboratory calibrations are required.

Choose your product and application

Chemical-Pulp-Scematics

 

Receiving terminal

Use a scanner to measure all purchased material for fair payment according to dry content – as well as finding all those nasty stones and metal bits of course. Both the Flow Scanner and new BFA Scanner are great instruments for your terminal.

Woodyard

Choose the Log Scanner for identification of foreign object before they can damage the chipper.

Pulp Digester

Choose the Flow Scanner for feed-forward digester control of continuous or batch chemical pulp digesters.

The exact amount of bone dry material and water present in each cook is seen as critical to the yield and quality of the final product. Mantex technology has proven success in this application and is very important to the profitability of our operation.

Christoph Storz, Senior Pulp Process engineer at Schweighofer-Fiber