Linerboard Machine-Air Control

Approach to air control can drive substantial board machine profit increases:

• $550K/year Defoamer Savings
• Dewatering Variability Reduced

Current Brown Board Condition

It is common for linerboard manufacturers to have opportunities for optimization in their air control systems on the paper machines. More often than not, they are forced to waste defoamer/deaeration chemicals to insure against cosmetic foam upsets and lost uptime related to air driven drainage changes. Attempts at real time air monitoring and control are routinely met with accuracy and reliability challenges that made these control loops almost as inefficient as the existing uncontrolled systems. Correlations between air signal and drainage rates were so loose that managers were unable to link the two through real time data.

The introduction of the SONARtrac systems now enable the brown board market to generate real time air data that reliably links air content to the runnability and cosmetic foam drivers of the papermaking process.

SONARtrac System Provides Control

In the example cited above, a 2000+ ton/day kraft linerboard system used operator control to manage entrained air in the thin stock loop. Typical dosage averaged ~5 lbs/ton over the two plys. The operating team installed SONARtrac clamp-on air meters on the thin stock systems of the top and bottom plys. Within hours, the loops were controlled to pre-existing air and visual targets.



Applications



Call CIDRA to learn more details about how we can make air control work for you.