"Although the time available for the overhaul was extremely short, the reconditioned spreader roll is running very well. Some other spreader rolls will also soon require reconditioning but we have nothing to worry about because we have Metso, a professional team to do it," says Deputy Maintenance Manager Hu Jinguo.

The Jiangxi Chenming mill in China is now familiar with the roll overhaul services of Metso's Guangzhou service center. "Metso really showed its professionalism on this project," says Hu Jinguo, Deputy Maintenance Manager for Jiangxi Chenming PM 1.

Jiangxi Chenming PM 1 (wire width 8,600 mm, design speed 2,000 m/min) is one of the high-speed machines of Chenming Group. Started up in March, 2005, PM 1 mainly makes light weight coated paper at a rate in excess of 1,000 metric tons per day.

This machine was supplied by Metso and its spreader rolls were manufactured by another supplier. Hu Jinguo explains: "After three years of operation some of the spreader rolls were starting to experience runnability problems, increased vibration or bearing failures, which made them very difficult to run. The problems were serious and had an influence on spreading efficiency and machine runnability.

The condition of one press section spreader roll was getting very serious and we decided to remove it from the machine at the next 10-day annual shutdown. Our spare roll for the position had been sent out earlier for maintenance and was still unavailable, which made the situation quite challenging. We contacted Metso's Guangzhou service center and informed them of our need to get the existing spreader roll reconditioned within the upcoming 10-day shutdown. We also ordered a new spare spreader roll for the press section from Metso."

Metso was willing to take on the spreader roll reconditioning challenge. In the course of the 10-day annual shutdown the spreader roll was taken out of the machine and transported to the Guangzhou workshop. The roll went through a complete reconditioning where all roll parts were inspected and consumables, including bearings, spool couplings and seals, were replaced with new parts. Some of the spools were repaired due to bearing seat wear and distortion. After several days of work, the spreader roll was reassembled and it was ready for a test run. A heat buildup problem was discovered during the test run in one of the tending side spools.

The roll was taken back to the workshop and the problem was solved. The final test run gave excellent results, and the roll was shipped back to the customer mill. This challenging spreader roll reconditioning project was performed, from machine to machine, within the 10-day turnaround time promised.

Metso's first service center to serve the pulp and paper industry in China was opened in 2001 in Wuxi, Jiangsu province. The expansion of the Wuxi service center was completed in March 2008, which doubled overall service capacity. In line with its commitment to Chinese papermakers, Metso opened a second service center in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in January 2009, and a third center is currently being built in Zibo, Shandong province.