Lucca, Italy 16 November 2017 -- In 2016 Smurfit Kappa awarded Toscotec with the rebuilding of the Company´s Barbosa paper machine's dryer section. The target operating speed of the machine after startup was set at 1,000 mpm.

Following an extensive project that lasted 25 months, with 36 days of setup from paper to paper, the PM was successfully commissioned and started up in July 2017.

The main target of the project was to improve the efficiency of the PM, by increasing its operating speed and production. The alliance between Toscotec and Smurfit Kappa has lead the packaging company to increase containerboard production to 120,000 tonnes per year which means an increase in the corrugating machines production.

Enrico Fazio, Toscotec's Paper & Board Sales Manager stated, "Toscotec's long-standing experience in dryer section rebuilds, using TT SteelDryer, our unique dryers with an extremely high drying capacity, and the advanced rope-less tail threading system, was the deciding factor in the customer's choice. We are very proud of our partnership with Smurfit Kappa and we would like to thank the SK team in Barbosa for their great cooperation during the entire project".

According to Carlos Mario Londoño, the project manager, "This was a very complex project to carry out. Thanks to the collaboration of suppliers such as Toscotec, we achieved the our goal within the time we had established".