Features Packaging Pulp Research & Innovation
MoRe Research develops steel belt for strong packaging made of high-yield pulp

The project, conducted alongside process solutions company IPCO (formerly Sandvik Process Systems) and Mid Sweden University, was established to find ways for newsprint and supercalendered paper mills to convert into production of packaging material.

The steel belt press prototype, designed by IPCO and installed at MoRe Research, increases strength characteristics in lignin-containing paper. Pressure, temperature and speed can be varied in this press in order to evaluate and optimize process conditions. The steel belt press simulates industry conditions and will be an important step in the commercialization of this technology.

“With our test results we hope that the steel belt technology will be accepted by the forest industry as an effective means of producing new materials based on wood,” says Cherryleen Garcia-Lindgren, global innovation manager at IPCO. “We believe that there is a potential to develop more applications. The cooperation with MoRe Research and Mid Sweden University is an excellent way of finding a new and exciting usage for our technology.”

Tove Joelsson, a PhD student at FORIC, the Mid Sweden University industrial research school, works at MoRe Research and has been optimizing the process as part of his postgraduate project, which is centred around creating strong packaging materials with high wet strength based on high-yield pulp. “Wet strength has a huge potential to replace plastic in many of the current types of packaging,” Joelsson says. “Another important aim is to create prerequisites for production of TMP or CTMP at paper mills and modify paper machines for production of new packaging material.”