Displaying items by tag: Tasosystems oy

A newsprint manufacturer has seen that retrofitting new steam profiler actuators is a cost-effective way to extend the life of the profiler, ensure reliability and reduce maintenance costs.

By Mark Williamson, Journalist Engineer

During the latter part of 1990s the market for steam profilers was at its peak, but many of those original investments are now starting to show their age. Some actuators are failing at an accelerated rate and the cost of maintenance is getting high. Tasowheel, a profiler actuator manufacturer based in Tampere, Finland, now offers a solution for those ageing profilers to bring their performance and reliability up to a high standard. Most importantly for papermakers, a retrofit actuator solution extends the service life of older profilers and reduces the cost of maintenance. Prolonging equipment life and reducing costs is welcomed by papermakers nowadays. Moreover, the retrofit with new, improved actuators can be done at a considerably lower cost than a complete rebuild of older actuators. Tasowheel has the expertise to do this since they have been manufacturing OEM actuators for profiler suppliers for over thirtyyears. Now, they offer an independent solution for existing profilers.

A major European newsprint manufacturer has seen the benefits of the solution. Their steambox, installed in 1999, was showing its age and many of the actuators were failing regularly in the high temperature environment. Their replacement was a maintenance burden every six months when the profiler was taken out and overhauled. Tasowheel proposed a solution in which the old and now obsolete actuators would be replaced in-situ with new bolt-on actuators that were designed to perform reliably even with high temperatures. Isolation of the control card from the heat and heat resistance of its components and motor coil cables and bearings were the key design improvements of the new STA-1015 actuator. STA-1015 can replace old model electromechanical steambox actuators types (EMA15, EMA1000 and STC900).The customer noted that the new actuators fitted perfectly with the same connections and even the same gaskets as the old ones. To evaluate the reliability, a test actuator was provided which was fitted for an extended period, ensuring that there were no control, compatibility or reliability issues. There were no problems during the test period.

Overhauls: from six months to two years

The mill placed an order for 114 new actuators. From placement of the order to the delivery mill staff were kept well informed of progress which was particularly important considering the tight delivery schedule defined by a papermachine extended shutdown opportunity. The actuators were installed in September, 2014 by three mill staff over two day shifts. No night shifts were needed. 

The customer reports that the replacement cost was considerably less than alternative solutions since no original-design replacement actuator was available.  Overhaul of the entire old actuator set was possible but would have required considerable downtime, manpower and lost production. The cost of the OEM service components were at least 20% more expensive than the Tasowheel solution.

With the reliablity problem solved, the mill staff hope to extend the steam profiler overhaul cycle to two years from the previous six months. This means lower maintenance costs and a longer lifetime with better reliability for the profiler.

Until now paper mills have had to either renovate a worn out dilution actuator at a high cost, or to replace all actuators simultaneously and invest in a costly CD weight system replacement, if original spare parts are no longer available.

The dilution actuators are a key quality factor in the paper production process, since they adjust how uniformly the headbox distributes the stock onto the wire in the beginning of the process. The stock consistency in machine cross direction (CD) is an important quality property, since it defines the most of the paper basis weight profile on which all other sheet variations depend.

To reach an even weight profile, each actuator regulates a valve that adds dilution water into the stock flow according to the set points given by the CD profiling control software. For this reason the speed, accuracy and build quality of the CD control actuators are essential for the dilution profiling since the actuators are operating 24/7.

“The reliability and condition of the profiling actuators and valves are key factors behind an undisturbed process in a paper machine”, says Jukka Ahlstedt, Sales Manager at Tasowheel Systems. “The CD control algorithms expect that the calculated new set points for each actuator are realized accurately and fast and that the response on the process is consistent. As the running speed of a paper machine can be up to 2,000 m/min, any delay in the control action that causes process upsets or broke, will cost a lot of money.”

Precision electro mechanics

Tasowheel has delivered more than 200,000 dilution actuators and valves during the past 30 years. But since the products have been branded Metso, Voith or ABB, surprisingly few customers know who the real manufacturer is.

“Our products are made solely of AISI 316 stainless steel”, Ahlstedt says. “The flow surfaces of the valves are hard coated to reach long life time and to give an outstanding resistance against wear, which can change the flow curves and cause quality and runnability problems.”

Tasowheel is a preferred partner to the leading paper machine manufacturers. But now, as old mills are shutting down rather than new ones opening up, optimizing existing processes has become more and more important for the company’s customer service.

“And we are not only talking about paper machines that need service”, Ahlstedt says. “A lot of paper machines are converted to produce different paper grades and even whole plants are relocated. In all these cases new actuators and valves are needed. With our products it is possible to replace practically any type of dilution actuator and valve on the paper machines today, regardless of the original manufacturer.”

Zone by zone

One new customer for Tasowheel is Papel Aralar, a leading manufacturer of specialty paper in Spain. The mill in the northern part of the country has three paper machines and the company exports to a good 30 countries on five continents. Aralar is known for its flexibility to adapt the production according to the customers’ varying needs.

Last year the company decided to renew the old CD actuators and valves in one of the machines. The problem was, however, that the original spare parts were not available anymore.

”Another possibility was to renovate the actuators and valves, but that was not really what we wanted to do”, the Technical Manager at Aralar says.  “When we became aware that Tasowheel Systems could replace the actuators and valves with brand new parts even in single pieces, we decided to check out this option regarding two of the most critical units."

The two new actuators and valves were installed and tested in one working day during a pre-planned shutdown in August 2013. According to Jukka Ahlstedt, the unit price was lower than what a renovation of the old actuators and valves would have cost.

“As our actuator cables fit directly to the I/O control cards of existing CD actuator system, neither the quality control system (QCS) nor to the CD control system had to be altered”, Ahlstedt says.” Only some minor modifications had to be done to the existing actuator support plates to fit the new actuators with the original fastening points.”

After having tested the new actuators under real circumstances for a couple of months, the customer ordered a change of the next 25 actuators to be made at the turn of the year.

“Since we knew the exact specifications, we could this time do all the modifications in advance, which made the replacements a real plug-and-play operation”, Jukka Ahlstedt says. “As a result, also this far more extensive project was completed in one working day. Now we are discussing similar projects with several paper mills all over Europe.”

TASOSYSTEM IS A SPECIALIST IN THE PRODUCTION OF MOTION REQUIRING EXCEPTIONAL PRECISION. Our core expertise involves the design and manufacturing of compact electromechanical motion components. We provide strong know-how in problem solving situations and R&D projects.

OUR CLIENTELE IS INTERNATIONAL AND MULTIBRANCHED. We have supplied our demanding customers for almost thirty years already with hundreds of thousands of precision mechanical products, for example for the paper, aviation and pharmaceutical industries around the world. Our goal is a satised customer and long-term co-operation.

TASOSYSTEM OY IS PART OF TASOWHEEL GROUP OY, an internationally active technology corporation with Finnish ownership that was established in 1979. Tasowheel Group’s two other subsidiaries are Tasogears Oy and Tasotikka Oy.

TASOSYSTEM DESIGNS, DEVELOPS AND MANUFACTURES ADVANCED ACTUATORS for slice, dilution, coating, moisture and steam adjustment, as well as separate equipment and demanding key components such as special valves and measuring equipment for the paper and other industries. Tasosystem’s adjustment controls ensure the best precision for motion adjustment in extremely demanding conditions.

TASOSYSTEM HAS DEVELOPED THE CENTURIO CONTROL SYSTEM to meet the control and adjustment needs of the process industry. Centurio helps improve production quality, productivity and occupational safety by transferring the
control of equipment to an efcient remote system.

INTEGRATED TOTAL SOLUTIONS FOR RESEARCH EQUIPMENT. We provide effective integrated package solutions for biological and medical research institutes, including devices and gears for optical measurement and x-ray imaging. Tasosystem’s high-quality research equipment is designed and manufactured to ensure the dynamic precision of movement, extremely smooth movements and silent operation.

WE OFFER OUR CUSTOMERS ALWAYS HIGH QUALITY TOTAL SERVICE that encompasses precision and tne mechanical expertise, assembly operations, logistics management, network operations and innovative electromechanical R&D. Our technical production know-how covers precision mechanical motion parts, such as precision gears, worm gears, motion screws and transmissions, as well as the machining of demanding raw materials.

CERTIFIED QUALITY. Tasowheel Group, former Tasowheel Oy, was one of the best Finnish technology industry companies to be certied according to the ISO 9001 standard. We produce safe and guaranteed solutions whose effectiveness our customers and co-operation partners can rely on.

RESPONSIBLE SOLUTIONS. In order to meet the challenges of sustainable development, Tasosystem strives to take into consideration economic, social and environmental responsibility in all its operations. Responsibility has always been an integral part of the company’s business and management culture.

Tasowheel Group has been recognised on numerous occasions for its social responsibility and environmental management. Tasowheel Group’s environmental system is certied according to the ISO 14001 standard.

WE SEEK TO BE A LEADER IN OUR OWN FIELD. Our demanding customers challenge us to create innovative solutions with long lifetime. Modern production technology and a highly trained workforce are prerequisites for producing high quality comprehensive solutions.