Blue Paper, the joint venture of Belgium's VPK Packaging Group and Klingele Papierwerke of Germany, is to benefit from a grade conversion rebuild of the paper machine at its mill in Strasbourg, France. The aim is to produce packaging materials on a paper machine that previously produced LWC, light weight coated paper, a grade that is suffering from a drastic decline in demand.
The rebuild will be undertaken by Metso, who will modernize the headbox and forming area, press, dryer and sizing sections and reel. The air systems and automation systems will also be modified. Start-up of the rebuilt machine is scheduled for the last quarter of 2013.
The original paper machine has a trimmed width of 8.5m and it produced LWC paper at a speed of 1,500 m/min. After the grade conversion rebuild, It will have a high annual capacity of fluting and testliner grades in the basis weight range of 70-130 g/m².
