ABB has launched L&W Fiber Online – an online system for measuring, monitoring and controlling fiber quality variables in paper stock preparation and pulp production. This helps pulp and paper customers to save production costs by optimising fiber usage, as well as reducing energy consumption through elimination of over-refining, and to improve quality by generating uniform pulp furnish for the paper, board or tissue machine.
Compared with traditional indirect measurements such as Canadian Standard Freeness (CSF) and Schopper-Riegler (SR), the measurements based on fiber images provided by L&W Fiber Online provide more detailed and accurate information on the status of pulp quality, according to ABB. Fiber properties are categorised and presented as mean values and statistical distributions of width, length, shape factor, two classes of fines (P and S) and macro fibrillation.
L&W Fiber Online mitigates the problem of late detection of production process quality issues caused by fiber variations. By discovering variations earlier in the process, and as early as in stock preparation, it becomes feasible to take corrective actions in time to produce paper, board or tissue that meets the specifications. This system is based on the company’s L&W Fiber Tester Plus, a laboratory instrument which is used by hundreds of papermakers to track their pulp quality, and is a preferred tool by research centres and universities around the world.
The system also allows for multiple sampling points with a single instrument, reducing initial investment and ongoing maintenance costs. For mixed furnishes, the optional Blend software analyses the ratio of reference fiber species in a fiber mix, making it possible to save raw materials when switching grades or during start-up.