Voith Paper Installs First RapidDryer at Fritz Peters Paper Mill

Heidenheim, Germany, 07 September 2007 -- Fritz Peters GmbH & CO. KG in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, decided to upgrade the PM 1 by investing in the extension of its drying and dewatering facilities.

The project "2010" will be realized in several steps with a capacity increase from 180,000 tons/year to 250,000 tons/year.

As a first step to increasing drying capacity, Voith Paper was commissioned to deliver a total of eight RapidDryer units for the pre-dryer section. In the course of the start-up scheduled for December 2007, the new unit will be used commercially for the first time.

The PM 1, delivered by Voith Paper in 1971/72, has a wire width of 5400 mm. It produces testliner and grey and yellow board in a basis weight range of 120-220 g/m². Its design speed is 1000 m/min.

RapidDryer

The RapidDryer is a drying cylinder newly developed by Voith Paper, featuring an increase of heat flow, depending on certain machine parameters, of up to 25% compared to usual drying cylinders, Therefore, the production capacity of the paper machine can be increased accordingly without extending the length of the dryer section, or the production capacity remains the same while the dryer section becomes shorter. These are bottlenecks that many packaging paper producers have to cope with today.

When developing the RapidDryer, the focus was on providing a cylinder with high drying capacity as a component of conventional cylinder drying. The RapidDryer can be manufactured in any drying cylinder standard dimension used nowadays and can be regarded as a one-to-one substitute for conventional cylinders.

Volkmar Peters, owner of the paper mill Fritz Peters GmbH & Co. KG explained: "We are placing our hopes in the RapidDryer and are expecting, apart from a calculated production increase, a product improvement in terms of surface properties and profile quality."

While installing the RapidDryer, extensive repairs of the heating and ventilation system, the hood and the steam and condensate system are performed together with Voith Paper at the same time.

Voith Paper is a division of Voith and one of the leading partners to the paper industry. Through steady innovations, Voith Paper optimizes the paper production process. More than a third of worldwide paper production is produced on Voith Paper machines.

Founded on 01 January 1867, Voith has a current workforce of approximately 34,000, sales of EUR 3.7 billion, and over 250 locations worldwide.

www.voithpaper.com