The mill’s expertise, investment in technological evolution and flexibility of production facilities have positioned it as a European leader in the market for its niche food contact packaging. Baking papers, greaseproof papers and bakery packaging are at the center of its product portfolio.
The situation
To remain competitive in the food packaging market, the mill decided that it wanted better control throughout the process, with quick and continuous measurements to better establish refining trends. Their current method of Standard Shopper Riegler control and manual measurements was no longer meeting the mill’s needs, creating an opportunity for improvement and automation.
The solution
Cartiere Ermolli and ABB have worked together in collaboration for many years, with the mill having a strong L&W installed base of testing instruments and genuine trust in ABB’s quality and service. During a customer meeting, our team witnessed firsthand the issues with refiner control, proposing ABB’s L&W Freeness Online to solve this challenge.
This was the mill’s first step into the world of online process measurements, and so ABB supplied the solution on a trial basis to demonstrate the benefits and capabilities of the system. Following the successful six-month trial, implementation was completed in December 2023. Now the refining control measurement is automated, and the instrument is fully integrated into the mill’s system, enabling dynamic adjustments and automated control.
L&W Freeness Online enables automated and integrated freeness measurements, with one installation able to serve three paper machines and all paper grades. The solution delivers a direct representation of freeness measurements and is suitable for all sizes of mills, with seamless integration.
The results
L&W Freeness Online has given the mill significant improvements in visibility of the mixture’s refining trends, providing feedback in as little as 5 minutes compared to the 35 minutes required by their previous control method.
This improvement has enabled the mill to reduce waste of raw materials at the start of the production process, as well as ensuring more efficient product changes, which is important to the mill as it has short production runs across a range of grades.
The ability to integrate L&W Freeness Online with their Distributed Control System (DCS) will increase visibility of data for operators, ensuring steadiness and uniformity for their production process.
Since implementation, the mill has experienced high reliability in data accuracy as well as a significant reduction in sheet breaks.
“Effective cooperation between Ermolli’s Departments (Maintenance, Production and Quality) and ABB was a key factor to success. The collaboration made it possible to install and use L&W Freeness Online comfortably, delivering great results. Also, the great appreciation shown by Ermolli’s workers represents a reason for great satisfaction,” said Alessandro Fae, Quality Manager, Cartiere Ermolli.
“At ABB, we believe in sustainable solutions and customer satisfaction. Our L&W Fiber Freeness Online is a trademark solution known for its measurement quality and accuracy. It’s equipped with fully automated sample handling, preparation, and measurement for both freeness and fiber properties. Cartiere Ermolli is one of our key partners and their belief in our technology and solutions has resulted in significant improvements for the mill’s process and measurement team,” said Rahul Yadav, Global L&W Business Driver, Europe.
The implementation of L&W Freeness Online has ensured that the mill can remain competitive and optimize product quality, enabling operators to confidently monitor the refining process, while freeing up time to focus on other areas for optimization.
Back
