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ABB to supply winder safety system for New Zealand paper producer

A producer of market pulp, paperboard and fibre-based packaging in New Zealand has tapped ABB to supply a specially designed winder safety system – the first of its kind in the country.

Oji Fibre Solutions has also contracted ABB for a winder drive control system and DCS880 drives at its Penrose mill.

With the mill’s existing winder equipment installed more than 30 years ago, the upgrade will help Oji Fibre ensure safe and efficient future operations, in line with recently updated safety requirements.

The new system features a range of winder safety improvement steps and devices including mechanical guarding (perimeter personnel access control via a retractable fence that keeps operators away from the danger zone), electrical controls (power interlocks), hydraulic controls (with redundancy), optical (safety light curtains) and safe speed monitoring.

The creation of safety zones allows operation in one zone to continue when another zone is infringed.

The system automates manual tasks – such as hands-free threading, set change with automatic sheet cut off, automatic gluing or auto-measuring slitters.

The improved features are all supported by a new operator control panel with safety programmable logic controller (PLC) and new human-machine interface (HMI).

ABB will also complete all factory acceptance tests and commissioning remotely.

Penrose Mill, which has an annual output of more than 85,000 tons of containerboard liner, uses recycled sources collected by Oji Fibre’s Fullcircle recycling service. Finished products are supplied mainly to the New Zealand, Australian and Asian markets.