Screening For Quality

One mill’s experience

Gary Parobeck
Acrowood
gparobeck@acrowood.com
Appvion Roaring Spring, PA

From length screening to thickness

screening.

It was a long haul but worth the trip.

Where is Roaring Spring PA
Mill Information
 End product - carbonless and security
papers.
 Five Batch Digesters
 Hardwood chips – 80% manufactured
on site. 20% saw mill and chip mill
supply.
The Screening System Before
Getting There
 Testing – Testing – Testing
 First investigations in 1999
 Chips were sent to various suppliers for
screening and overs treatment testing
 The end product was sent on for
independent cook trials
 Close review by mill personnel
Testing
Testing
Results
 Thickness screening offered the
greatest savings and shortest payback
 Cracking was shown to provide the mill
the best result for their cooking process
 A compromised was reached based on
available funds and space
 New Thickness Screens
 Model 1730 Screw Conveyor
 Model 1230 Side Fed Screw
 Model 55144 DiamondRoll Thickness Screen
 Model 35108 DiamondRoll Fines Screen

 Note – the new system was designed to send the overs

through a sizer and then recirculate this product back over
the screening system.
Side View
Installation Photos – During Demo
Installation Photos
Bucket elevator at left feeds the screw conveyor
which in turn feeds the infeed screw distributor.
Installation Photos
 Installation
Photos

DFS #2 Accepts bypass - above

DFS fines and accepts - below

#1 and #2 Accepts Chutes below DTS

Installation Photos
 Screen Performance
 Design Capacity 100 green tons per hour
 Performance Guarantee:
Infeed Chip Quality Chip Quality after Screening
≤10% Overthick (+8mm T) ≤2.0% Overthick (+8mm T)
>10% and ≤15% Overthick ≤2.5% Overthick
>15% Overthick ≤3.0% Overthick

≤1.5% Fines (-3mm RH) ≤0.5% Fines (-3mm RH)

>1.5% and ≤2.5% Fines ≤0.6% Fines
>2.5% Fines ≤0.8% Fines

Fines removed by DiamondRoll screen

≤0.5% Accepts loss (+2mm thickness)
Mill Classification
To the Digester – Old System
 Over 1 ½” RH – 3 %
 Over 8mm T: 11%
 1 1/8” RH: 7%
 7/8” RH:17%
 5/8” RH: 27%
 3/8” RH: 27%
 Pins (3/16 RH): 7% Dust: 1%
 Average Overs 6mm 4mm 2mm P&F Accepts
Summer '12 17.63 28.37 39.14 13.74 1.11 81.26
To the Digester New System
 Their new stack was 10mm, 8mm,
6mm, 4mm, 2mm and a 3mm RH
 After screen with out the sizer product
they saw 96.9% Accepts
What did this mean to the mill
 Yield improvement
 liquor savings of 12,000 gallons per
day.
 Overall improvement in Digester
operation
 Cleaner, Safer Working Environment.
The Perfect Storm
The Perfect Storm
 The Sizer product is returned to the
infeed for re-screening
 A fraction of the returned material
contained chunks that were just over
8mm thick and as such were rejected as
an over.
 These pieces were small enough to also
pass the Sizer grate again.
The Perfect Storm
 As a result overthick built up to a level
which over-ran the sizer capacity
 The mill could bypass the Sizer and
could continue to run
 This of course meant no overs removal
and everything but the fines went to
the Digester
What to do?
 Open up the DiamondRoll Thickness
Screen to allow the larger pieces to
pass
 Or – Install a smaller grate in the Sizer
thus reducing the size of the product.
Consequences
 If the screen is opened up a higher
percentage of overthick will make it to
the Digester.
 If the Sizer is closed down fines and
pins will go up, ultimately greater fiber
loss
Action Taken – Step One
The mill has resolved this issue (for now)
by revising the screen IRO:
 First half (infeed) 7.5mm IRO

 Second half – 9.5mm IRO

 Last two shafts – 13mm IRO.(Gate)

IRO Change
 The IRO is changed by shims between
the bearing housings.
IRO Change
Discharge end gate
Results
 Accepts to the Digester dropped from
94% to 90% due to allowing more
overthick.
 But it did solve the problem of the overs
build up and Sizer plugging
Action Taken Step Two
 They worked with the Sizer
Manufacturer to make grate changes
 They were able to close the
DiamondRoll thickness screen back
down to a 7.5 MM IRO – All but the last
two that Remain at a 13MM IRO
 Automated gate at the discharge end of
the thickness screen
 Overview
 They are happy with the system and it has shown great savings.
 Currently accepts to the digester are back in 94% range.
 Their target is to bring the accepts to the Digester up to 96% or better.
They have calculated that for every 1% at the digester they
save $000,000 per year.
Questions ?
Slicers & Crackers
Chip Slicers
Chip Slicer Basics
 Gravity Feed
 Bottom Discharge
 Slices Chips to Thickness
 Two Co-Rotating Elements:
Anvil Rotor and Knife Ring
 Typically 95% Reduction Efficiency
 Must be protected from contaminants
 Chip Slicer Function
123 rpm

369 rpm

The anvils push the chips into the

knives, while centrifugal force holds
them flat against the knife ring
Chip Slicer Drive

 Single 150 HP, 1200 rpm motor

 Belt drive to the gear train
 Simple gear box design
 Shear Pin Coupling
 Wear Parts
There are six main wear
part components: Anvil

Anvils
Knives Knife Carrier

Wear Plate
Counter knives
Knife carriers Gauge
Plate
Wear plates Knife
Gauge plates
Counter
Knife
Gear Assembly
 Chip Quality
 95% Reduction Efficiency
 10-15% Fines and Pin chip production
 The thickness control is adjustable
 Chip distribution into the slicer is
adjustable
 Summer & winter chip quality is
essentially the same
 Chip Quality
Chip Slicer Efficiency - Evaluation on Southern Pine
Model 1511i Chip Slicer Configured for 10mm Thickness Control

Sample +10mm T +8mm T +6mm T +4mm T +2mm T +3mm RH Pan

Infeed 66.5% 16.6% 12.9% 3.8% 0.2% -- --

Infeed 69.4% 17.3% 10.7% 2.6% <0.1% -- --

Slicer Product 0.4% 31.7% 29.7% 22.9% 12.9% 1.9% 0.5%

Slicer Product 0.9% 36.1% 29.8% 20.7% 10.1% 1.8% 0.5%

Results*: 99.0% >10mm Overthick Reduction Efficiency

1.9% Pin Chip Generation (<2mm T, >3mm RH)
0.5% Fines Generation (<3mm RH)

* Results based on the average of both Infeed and

Slicer Product Samples
Chip Crackers
Reducers And Drivelines
 Two reducers
drive the rolls
 Large universal
joint drivelines
connect the rolls
and reducers
 Swing arms
support the rolls
 Chip Cracker
• Overthick chips are
compressed by two
diamond tipped rolls
which gently crack the
chips
• Cracking allows proper
liquor penetration in
pulping
• Can adjust performance
by changing pressure
and/or gap between rolls
Cracker Rolls and Segments

• Square central box

• Machined attachment surfaces

• Integrated register lip that locates individual

segments and transfers cracking forces from
the segment to the central shaft
 Cracker Performance

 High overthick treatment efficiency –

+95% fissuring effectiveness at 8mm
chip thickness control.
 Low pins and fines production
 Typically <2.5% combined pins and fines
(pins <7mm, >3mm RH, fines <3mm RH)
Cracker Pulping Response
 More effective overthick treatment
results in better pulping response
 “Hardwood – Cracked overthick chips
produced (3.4 to 3.8%) more absolute
wood to pulp yield than rechipped
overthick chips. Knots were (85% to
89%) less and Shives (22% to 26%) less
with Cracked overthick chips compared to
Rechipped overthick chips.”
 Econotech study in 2006
 Cracker Pulping Response
 More effective overthick treatment
results in better pulping response
 “Softwood – Cracked overthick chips
produced (2.5 to 2.6%) more absolute
wood to pulp yield than rechipped overthick
chips. Knots were (71% to 86%) less and
Shives (6% to 37%) less with Cracked
overthick chips compared to Rechipped
overthick chips.”
 Econotech study in 2006