The results are clear: just a few months after Voith’s comprehensive digitalization solutions were commissioned at PM9 in El Burgo, Saica Group’s investment in the Papermaking 4.0 package has already paid off. The Spanish paper manufacturer produces around 430,000 tons of paper per year at the facility, located around 25 kilometers from Zaragoza. At the end of 2020, the company decided to digitalize production. After a thoroughly positive experience with the digitalization of PM4 in Venizel, France, Voith was awarded the contract to implement the project for PM9, which includes OnCumulus applications and the two solution packages OnView.MassBalance and OnEfficiency.Strength.
The main goal of OnEfficiency.Strength on a paper machine for container board is to reduce the consumption of starch without negatively affecting the strength properties of the paper. The solution uses virtual sensors as a basis on which innovative advanced process control is built. OnEfficiency.Strength has already proven a high benefit in several references and significantly reduced the product cost. At PM9, too, the high potential of digitalization became apparent shortly after commissioning.
OnView.MassBalance starts at an earlier point in paper production. The app’s data maps the current stock flows in a diagram and depicts deviations from the standard. As soon as a defined threshold is exceeded, the application automatically highlights the relevant area in the diagram and recommends suitable courses of action to avoid fiber losses. In this way, OnView.MassBalance leads to targeted process optimization in stock preparation and provides the operating team with all relevant information if a different process setting is required. Both applications are integrated on Voith’s OnCumulus platform. The platform provides users with an overview of all important process parameters, includes several industry-specific applications and also acts as a reliable and secure data repository.