Packaging Mill Improves Productivity and Product Quality while Reducing Costs

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Hercobond™ Plus HC Dry Strength Additive

Customer Challenge

The operating efficiency of a North American recycled containerboard mill was constrained by dry strength requirements on a range of linerboard grades between 26lb and 42lb. Low values for ring crush, mullen and internal bond strength across the grade line resulted in operating rates below budget, significant overweighting, a high number of quality related downgrades and an inefficient spray starch program.

Recommended Solution

Solenis audited the mill’s chemical and mechanical processes and recommended Hercobond Plus HC, a proprietary dry strength and productivity aid program. This program provided the customer with a direct and linear strength response, as well as a significant improvement in fines retention and pressing efficiency.

Results Achieved

The application of Hercobond Plus HC provided increases in ring crush index, mullen index and internal bond strength of 8 to 20%. The mill leveraged these gains to eliminate the spray starch program, increase overall tonnage rates by 5% and reduce basis weights across the grade line by >2% on average. Together, the higher tonnage and lower basis weights resulted in a >7% increase in thousand square feet (MSF) output per month with a lower production cost per MSF. A portion of the strength gain was also traded for a reduction in quality related downgrades.

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RECORDED BENEFITS

  • Increased dry strength
  • Lower basis weight
  • Improved productivity
  • Improved quality
  • Reduced cost per MSF

 


Source: Solenis