Forestal y Papelera Concepción found the holy grail of softness Chile
2 The Advantage NTT machine is designed to swing between production of plain and textured tissue. The secret behind this is the belt. A plain belt provides plain paper while a fine, medium or coarse belt gives textured tissue with high softness and bulk.
The plain tissue market was never an option Forestal y Papelera Concepción (FPC) had been in the paper business for more than 20 years when they decided to expand into the tissue business. What they expected to be just another type of paper grade, turned out to be a totally different animal. They went into an exciting world where technology, and how you foster it, plays a significant role for the characteristics of the paper produced. Their dream was to produce tissue paper soft as silk, reaching the threshold of 100 TSA (Tissue Softness Analyzer), the holy grail in tissue business and normally only accessible with TAD (Through Air Drying) technology. Chile has a population of 17 million people and the average tissue consumption is 10 kg/ person per year. The market is dominated by a few big players providing tissue converted to all types of consumer and Away from Home products. With this in mind, it was never an option for FPC to compete in the plain paper tissue market. Neither was it realistic to go to the other end of the scale and start production of structured tissue using the TAD process, due to the expensive energy cost in Chile. They had to do something different. Exciting NTT technology At that time we were planning to enter the tissue business, Valmet was releasing the Advantage NTT technology. It was said to provide a textured tissue paper with characteristics close to TAD paper but with significantly lower energy consumption. We got very interested, or to be honest, excited about it. The NTT technology was just what we were looking for, giving us the opportunity to produce something out of the landscape bringing a competitive advantage for us and our customers says Eduardo Izquierdo, Director, FPC. Competitive, premium and sustainable The main reason why FPC selected the NTT technology was the opportunity to deliver premium paper to customers who didn t have access to TAD paper. Giving them a competitive advantage to develop premium brands in a sustainable way. In the beginning the converters didn t know what textured NTT paper was, but as soon as they realized the magnificence of the paper they went into the boat with us. Now we are working with 15 different customers worldwide. We produce plain and textured tissue mainly shifting between three belts. Plain belt for toilet and kitchen towel, fine for super soft toilet paper and coarse belt for bulky kitchen towel and super strong towel for the Away from Home market. The Advantage NTT machine in Concepción was the world s second to start up and the first wide NTT machine in the market. A beautiful but challenging location FPC is located in Concepción, Chile, a few steps from the sea. A beautiful location but challenging due to the risk of earth quakes. After the big earth quake in 2010 the construction regulations became stricter. In practice this meant that the tissue machine had to be built on a foundation of a huge number of poles and a layer of 1,5 meters of concrete to withstand quakes. 3
Eduardo Izquierdo is happy about the converting process which have given lots of learnings about how to treat NTT paper. It s NTT paper don t destroy it! The company s strategy was initially to only focus on production of jumbo rolls for the export market. But soon they decided to build a converting facility and develop their own brand. The converting line provided knowledge The idea was never to compete with their customers but to assist them better. The converting line gave the opportunity to fully understand how to treat the paper and utilize its properties in the very best way. A knowledge which they now transfer to their customers. You can t treat textured NTT paper as plain paper nor as tough paper it s NTT paper. You must take care of the characteristics created in the tissue machine. We found that microembossing is a paper destroyer. Now we know how to make the paper flourish in converting and take full advantage of the bulk and softness. 4
FPC s own brand has the swan imprinted in the paper. The NTT technology has really raised the standard in the Chilean market. Consumers are demanding higher quality so from now on the premium paper in Chile has to be textured. The holy grail of soft tissue paper The FPC team have worked hard to tweak the machine and fine tune all parameters to produce the softest paper with greatest hand feel. And the work paid off. My dream was to, someday within years to come, produce a tissue paper with a softness of 100 TSA. That threshold is like the holy grail for us tissue producers. But I had never imagined we could do it already after six months. That s really incredible. Eduardo Izquierdo, Director, FPC FPC s own brand Swan and Mi Hogar has been well accepted by the market and one year after it was launched to the Chilean market they have about five percent market share. 5
The tissue line is equipped with a Valmet F(O)CUS Rewinder to maintain the properties created in the tissue making process. Just scratching the surface We are delighted with the capability of the NTT machine and it makes me excited to know that we are just scratching the surface of what the NTT technology can do for us. We will continue to work with the Valmet team and other suppliers to find out how to optimize the technology. To benefit from the great pulp, we have in Chile, how we refine it, what blends we use and how we set the parameters to maintain a stable production of top notch products for our customers. Today the demand for FPC s products are increasing and the production is split between 20% converted products for the Chilean market and 80% jumbo rolls for export to Europe, USA and South America. Swan and Mi Hogar are their own brands and are appreciated by the Chilean women, who are a target group in this consumer market. Often it s the women who go to the supermarket and make the final decision, and they seem to like it. Eduardo Izquierdo and Hector Godoy, Valmet. Eduardo Izquierdo is satisfied with the cooperation with Valmet. FPC has the full Valmet package from end to end including stock preparation and automation system. State of the art technology and good Chilean pulp are the recipe behind a paper soft as silk. The experience with the team has been very good, both with the people involved in the project and the support from the technology center in Karlstad. They are very professional and friendly and have been instrumental to achieve the good running conditions and the high product quality. 6
Facts and figures Forestal y Papelera Conceptión, Chile Tissue technology Supplier Width Advantage NTT 200HS Valmet 5,5 m Texture mode: 1.800 m/min Design speed Plain mode: 2.000 m/min OptiFlo II TIS headbox NTT Shoepress Cast iron Advantage Yankee dryer Key technology Advantage AirCap hood Advantage SoftReel reel Advantage WetDust dust system Automation system Start-up June 2015 Capacity 80.000 tons/year Jumbo rolls, converted products Products Own brand, Swan and Mi Hogar 7
The global leader in tissue making Over 120 years of experience within the pulp and paper industry has resulted in Valmet becoming the global leader in tissue making. We deliver the most production capacity with the largest installed base of tissue making machines worldwide. We strive to ensure that tissue quality, knowledge and process technology, as well as our wide scope of service, continue to drive mutual success. Let s go forward to be Best in Tissue! Contact us Valmet AB, Karlstad, Sweden Tel.: +46 54 171 000 Valmet S.p.A, Gorizia, Italy Tel.: +39 0481 528 311 Valmet Pescia, Italy Tel.: +39 0572 429 053 Valmet Inc, Biddeford, USA Tel.: +1 207 282 1521 Valmet Ltd., Beijing, China Tel.: +86 1065 6666 00 e-mail: tissue.info@valmet.com www.valmet.com Advantage NTT is registered trade mark in European Countries and USA. Specifications in this document are subject to change without notice. Product names in this publication are all trademarks of Valmet Corporation. Valmet Corporation, TIS_C47030 V1 EN 11/2017