Papelera Reyes, one of the leading tissue producers in South America, is the first company in the world to install the Valmet Warm-up Next process at the Papel Paracas plant in Callao, Peru. We spoke with Daniel Schroeder, Tissue Making & Converting Sales Manager at Valmet
By Editorial Staff
Papelera Reyes, one of the leading tissue producers in the South American market, is the first company worldwide to integrate the innovative Valmet Warm-up Next process into its production line. The installation of this technology at the Papel Paracas plant, located in Callao, Peru, marks a new chapter in the long-standing collaboration between Papelera Reyes and Valmet Tissue Converting.
The challenging desert environment serves as a powerful demonstration of the robustness and efficiency of the Valmet solution, designed to ensure excellent performance even under the most demanding conditions. Already operating with four state-of-the-art Valmet Constellation® lines, Papelera Reyes once again confirms its commitment to highly efficient systems and reaffirms its role as a forward-looking leader in the tissue sector.
“With the installation of the Valmet Warm-up Next process, we are taking a natural step in the shared journey of innovation and growth that we have built together with Valmet,” says Sebastian Reyes, Operations Manager at Papelera Reyes, adding: “This next-generation hot embossing solution sets a new benchmark for the industry, allowing us to ensure consistently high product standards while adapting quickly and effectively to the needs of an ever-evolving market. This milestone highlights our long-term commitment to innovation, performance, and uncompromising quality across all our operations.”
The Warm-up Next process takes embossing to a higher level, offering up to 50% thickness increase, greater softness, reduced paper consumption, energy savings of up to 60%, and enhanced operational safety, while maintaining softness, absorbency, and tensile strength—all without the use of water. The Warm-up Next process enables producers to achieve exceptional performance and maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly demanding market.
The Warm-up Next process expands on the benefits of Warm-up Contactless by introducing pre-embossing capabilities for excellent finished product results, offering endless configuration possibilities for both hygienic products and kitchen rolls, for example with micro pre-embossing. Furthermore, this technology seamlessly integrates one or two rubber-to-steel pre-embossing stations into existing embossing units, without significant changes to converting line layouts in the case of a single rubber-to-steel station. The Warm-up Next process eliminates the need for a water source, removing the paper wetting and drying stages during production. In addition, it ensures that the complexity of the production line remains unchanged.
An evolution of traditional embossing
In the tissue industry landscape, technological innovation plays an increasingly central role in meeting the demands for efficiency, sustainability, and product quality. The Warm-up Next process represents an evolution of traditional embossing that promises to redefine industry standards. We spoke with Daniel Schroeder, Tissue Making & Converting Sales Manager at Valmet, to explore the advantages, challenges, and future prospects of this revolutionary technology.
What are the main innovations that the Warm-up Next process brings compared to traditional embossing technologies?
Compared to traditional embossing technologies, the Warm-up Next process is distinguished by several innovations that improve both finished product quality and production efficiency. Among the main advantages are: up to 50% increase in thickness, lower paper consumption, energy savings of up to 60%, and greater operational safety compared to other heating systems, with a positive impact on absorbency and strength, and without the use of water. In addition, the Warm-up Next process expands on the advantages of Warm-up Contactless by introducing pre-embossing, enabling excellent finished product results and endless configuration possibilities, both for hygienic articles and kitchen rolls, for example with micro pre-embossing for a TAD-like effect.
What were the main challenges in implementing the Warm-up Next process at the Papelera Reyes site, located in such a harsh desert environment?
Rather than challenges linked to the desert environment, I would speak of a particularly significant coincidence: the first customer to adopt the Warm-up Next process happens to be located in an arid area, the same that also inspired our communication campaign. This installation, rather than posing obstacles, immediately highlighted the potential of the Warm-up Next process, which from the very start has operated with great effectiveness, without the use of water, ensuring high performance and excellent embossing quality.
How easy is it to integrate the Warm-up Next technology into existing production lines? Is plant downtime or major modification required?
The Warm-up Next process is designed to be integrated simply and effectively into existing production lines without substantial changes to the converting line layout. In short, this solution allows the original plant structure to be maintained, without increasing line complexity or requiring prolonged downtime or invasive structural interventions.
After the success in South America, which key markets is Valmet targeting for the expansion of Warm-up Next?
Following the success achieved in South America, Valmet is looking at the global expansion of the Warm-up Next process with a well-defined strategic vision. Launched at the Tissue Summit Brasil international trade fair, it positions itself as a high-value solution for the global market, without geographical or environmental limits. Particular attention is directed to the Middle East, North Africa, and certain areas of Asia, regions showing strong interest in solutions that combine production efficiency, sustainability, and resource optimization. At the same time, the Warm-up Next process represents an ideal choice for European or American producers aiming to modernize their plants, improve finished product quality, reduce operating costs, and strengthen industrial competitiveness.