ANDRITZ has received an order from Sappi Austria Produktions GmbH & Co KG to supply key components for a new broke handling system for its mill in Gratkorn, Austria. Start-up is scheduled for the third quarter of 2023.

The new broke handling will be part of the production line PM9 producing high-quality wet strength paper, such as label paper in the future. ANDRITZ will deliver high-consistency (HC) pulping, high-density (HD) cleaning and deflaking for processing the special type of broke.

Specific trials on pulping and deflaking of wet-strength paper were conducted at the ANDRITZ stock preparation pilot plant in Graz, Austria in advance. The trials were carried out with comparable raw material from Sappi and confirmed the pulp properties and operating characteristics required by Sappi for the future.

Flavio Froehli, VP Marketing & Sales at Sappi Europe: "We are very pleased that we will also be able to produce wet-strength label paper at our Gratkorn mill in the future. This investment underscores our strategy to establish Sappi as the leader within the label sector, adding to the supply of value adding products across our entire business."

Sappi Austria is part of the Sappi group, a leading global provider of sustainable wood fiber products and solutions, in the fields of dissolving pulp, printing papers, packaging and specialty papers, casting and release papers, biomaterials and bioenergy. Its mill in Gratkorn produces 950,000 tons per annum of high-quality, double- and triple-coated papers, used for premium quality publications all over the world, as well as one-side coated label papers. The mill also produces 250,000 tons per annum of totally chlorine-free (TCF) bleached chemical pulp for its own consumption and it has an annual sheet finishing capacity of 875,000 tons.