Streamlining Paper and Pulp Industries with Advanced Bale Handling Solutions: A Focus on Recycled Fiber Handling

Nov, 14. 2024

In today’s competitive landscape, the pulp and paper industry is grappling with rising labor costs, safety concerns, and a growing demand for efficiency and sustainability. These challenges not only impact the profitability and productivity of these sectors but also their commitment to environmental stewardship.

At FMW Industries, we understand these challenges and have dedicated our expertise to developing advanced solutions that address them head-on. This article will introduce you to our cutting-edge wastepaper and pulp bale handling solutions, designed to optimize operations while ensuring safety sustainability and reduce unexpected downtime.

Fully Automated Wastepaper Bale Handling Solutions

As recycled fiber has become more and more important to the paper industry, the demand for wastepaper handling machinery and expertise has increased over the years. FMW installed the first wastepaper dewiring system in 1985. Since then more than 100 plants worldwide have been equipped with FMW’s latest technology and machinery for this sector. The company engineers innovative pulper feeding systems including dewiring and wire cutting applications, a system for homogenization of materials, and conveyors. All machines are state of the art and adhere to the highest quality standards, enabling our customers to enhance their throughput, yield, and prevent unexpected downtime while increasing the safety of their employees. Let’s have a closer look at the process.

Extractor – Automated Bale Dewiring

The FMW-Extractor is the core process machine for pulper feeding. It is a fully automated dewiring machine that removes wires continuously from the wastepaper bales. The cutting device is situated on the bottom side of the bale, while the dewiring device is located on the top of the bale. The conveyor is designed to continue operating during the dewiring process, which increases throughput capacity and ensures a continuous material flow. Another benefit of this application is that the entire process takes place within the conveyor, which eliminates paper spillage around the machine.

When handling wastepaper bales, mills are often faced with the issue of different positions of the wired bales, requiring meticulous attention from on-site staff to ensure the bales are fed correctly into the process. This manual handling not only poses process safety risks but also impedes operational efficiency and consistency in product quality.

To address this challenge, FMW Industries engineered the FMW Bale Tipper, a comprehensive automated solution. It is designed to accept bales in their original orientation, irrespective of their wire configuration (horizontal or vertical). The system is programmed to detect the wires, rotate the bale if necessary, and convey into the Extractor.

Hydro-pulper Feeding

For the feeding of low consistency hydro-pulpers the wires do not need to be removed. Therefore, automatic wire cutters have been developed to meet specific functional and operational requirements. Here are some key differences:

• FMW ConCut focuses on continuous wire and steel/plastic strip cutting for various recycled paper bales, offering high throughput capacity (up to 4000 admt/d.).
• FMW AD-Cutter is specialized for cutting wastepaper bale wires, available in different types for single bales (AD/I) and cross-wired configurations (AD/II). Or for high throughput (up to 2750 adtm/d.) as a double bale application (AD/III).

For the feeding of high consistency hydro-pulpers the wires should be removed to minimize wear on rotors and screens. FMW’s Extractor automatic dewiring machine was designed specifically for this purpose.

For the feeding of Hydro-pulpers with wastepaper rolls (broke, etc.), FMW’s Paper Reel Splitter is tailored for industrial cutting and portioning of these materials.

Drum Pulper Feeding – EFT (Equalized-flow technology)

Drum Pulpers require a consistent mass flow of material for best performance. FMW’s EFT is designed to provide the best prepared and measured furnish stream to the pulper for optimal productivity.

As with our high consistency hydro-pulper feed systems, FMW drum pulper feed systems begin by efficiently removing the bale wires with an Extractor. By removing the wires, drum screen sections have a longer service life and much lower long-term maintenance expense.  

From the Extractor, dewired bales pass through FMW’s auger type bale breaker. The bale breaker loosens densely packed paper bales so that a free flow of loose paper is available to the EFT system.  

FMW’s Equalized Flow System. EFT utilizes a leveling wheel for volumetric control and a radiometric scale that adjusts the drum feed conveyor speed to ensure a consistent mass flow to the process.  

In conclusion, FMW’s fully automated bale handling solutions represent today’s state-of-the-art technology, offering smart, modern solutions for material handling with a strong focus on safety, process stability and decreased downtime. With decades of experience and know-how, FMW guarantees proven solutions tailored to meet individual needs, from existing plant modifications to the development of new turnkey plants.