Saica Paper UK extends service agreement with Voith to ensure reliable achievement of production targets and also in news successful implementation of OnEfficiency.Strength at DS Smith.

Saica Paper UK extends service agreement with Voith to ensurereliable achievement of production targets and safety in stock preparation

• Trusted service partnership, with the contract running since 2019
• Contract covers mechanical maintenance of the stock preparation line
• Proactive wear parts exchange program eradicates unplanned stoppages and reduces overall operating costs
• On-site expertise enables efficient use of service resources, timely repairs and fast troubleshooting
• Close collaboration and shared goals ensure efficiencies in planning, prioritization, costs, reporting and execution of the service

Saica Paper UK continues the collaboration with Voith and extends the ongoing service contract for mechanical
maintenance in the stock preparation running since 2019. The agreement focusses on effective maintenance planning, efficient use of resources, ontime repairs and trouble-shooting solutions.

Supported with Voith process technology investigations, the collaboration ensures availability and performance of stock preparation performance at design level, even with the plant in its 14th year.

“Last year we had uninterrupted machine production by eliminating unplanned stoppages from stock preparation, which improved both productivity and quality of our paper. Success of the service contract has been achieved by working with shared goals,” explains Darren Hoyle, Mill Maintenance Manager at Saica Paper UK.

Voith’s collaborative service approach relies on the long-term integration of service experts into the mill’s maintenance team. This enables transparent and accurate on-time information for timely, flexible and proactive use of service resources.

“The proactive wear part exchange program has eradicated unplanned stoppages and reduced overall operating costs,”
concludes Jordan Whyatt, Service Technician at Voith Paper. “Plus, safety is always at the forefront of our maintenance and is reinforced, for example, through a safety card system, safety audits and toolbox talk initiatives.”

More Information at: Voith papermaking components and services

About Saica
The Saica Group offers sustainable paper solutions for the manufacture of corrugated board and packaging, promoting circularity in waste management. With more than 12,000 employees and a presence in Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Turkey, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and the United States, the Saica Group has four
business lines: manufacture of recycled paper for corrugated board (Saica Paper), waste management and environmental services (Saica Natur), production of corrugated board packaging (Saica Pack) and flexible packaging (Saica Flex). The group’s turnover is 3,662 million euros (consolidated sales at 31 December 2024).

Successful implementation of OnEfficiency.Strength at DS Smith Witzenhausen for quality stabilization

• Digital solution enables data-driven production control according to flexible target values and cost efficiency
• DS Smith records significant improvements in paper strength consistency and process stabilization
• The solution will be available as part of Voith’s MillOne ecosystem, which connects all data in one production center

With over 20 installations around the globe, OnEfficiency.Strength is setting new standards in data-driven papermaking. A recent installation at DS Smith Witzenhausen shows how the use of OnEfficiency.Strength can achieve impressive results in quality stabilization.

The digital solution’s key impacts include savings in raw materials such as fibers and starch, as well as reductions in paper machine energy use. Using real-time data from virtual sensors to predict strength, the system controls actuators such as the jet/wire ratio, refiner, starch application and different fiber types according to the highest cost efficiency to produce the
relevant paper grade in the desired specification.

As part of an optimization project at the Witzenhausen site, where 430,000 tons of corrugated base paper with a basis weight between 115 and 210 gsm are produced annually, the module initially achieved savings in raw materials on the PM 1.

“In the further course, we defined a new focus on quality stabilization and reduction of overprocessing,” reports Daniel Goetze, Production Manager PM 1 at DS Smith in Witzenhausen. “It was impressive to see how flexibly and quickly the system responded. Process changes that operators previously made empirically across multiple tambours are now performed quickly and effectively in a single tambour with OnEfficiency.Strength.”

Thanks to the innovative OnEfficiency.Strength module, real-time control of paper quality is now possible. Using flexibly adjustable parameters, system goals such as raw material savings, strength reduction, quality stabilization or a balanced compromise between these goals can be freely weighted.

“The monitoring shows us that deviations from the mean value are decreasing. This means that fluctuations in strength have been significantly reduced and the paper machine is running even more stably,” explains Nils Schmidt, Production Supervisor at DS Smith Witzenhausen. “In addition, this value is now much closer to the specification, which has a direct impact on cost savings,” says Schmidt.

OnEfficiency.Strength is available as a standalone solution and will be part of Voith’s smart MillOne ecosystem. MillOne aggregates and analyzes all data in one central production center, providing an unprecedented level of integration and consistency in data usage to enhance human expertise and streamline production processes. Thanks to real-time data analytics, predictive maintenance and smarter decision-making, it can make mills more productive, reduce costs and increase profitability.

More information about OnEfficiency.Strength at: Voith products services, automation and digital solutions
More information about MillOne at: MillOne autonomous paper mill

About the Voith Group
The Voith Group is a global technology company. With its broad portfolio of systems, products, services and digital applications, Voith sets standards in the markets of energy, paper, raw materials and transport. Founded in 1867, Voith today has around 22,000 employees, sales of € 5.2 billion and locations in over 60 countries worldwide and thus is one of the larger family-owned companies in Europe.

The Group Division Voith Paper is part of the Voith Group. As the full-line supplier to the paper industry, it provides the largest range of technologies, services and products on the market, and offers paper manufacturers integrated solutions from a single source. The company’s continuous stream of innovations facilitates resource-conserving production and supports customers in significantly reducing their carbon footprint. With its comprehensive automation products and leading digitalization solutions from the Papermaking 4.0 portfolio, Voith offers its customers state-of-the-art digital technologies to improve the availability and efficiency of their systems in all sections of the production process.

Contact: Naomi Voith – Vice President Global Communications Voith Paper
Phone +49 7321 37 2209 – naomi.voith@voith.com – www.voith.com

To feature your company on Paper Technology International News please visit our website https://papertechnologyinternational.com or email your press release to info@papertechnologyinternational.com