Features Paper
Little Rapids’ VTM 3 tissue machine goes online ahead of schedule

The new machine replaced the company’s old PM 3 at its Shawano production facility in Wisconsin.

According to Voith, the new VTM 3 went online six days ahead of the contract schedule, achieving a total plant downtime of 30 days from paper to paper — between dismantling the previous equipment and erecting and starting up the new machine. The parties say the second jumbo roll of tissue paper provides marketable quality, and the machine reached maximum operating speed during its first week in service.

All of the new VTM 3’s technologies and components are coordinated and integrated with each other. Besides the new XcelLine tissue paper machine and its auxiliary equipment – not counting the Yankee cylinder, which has been reused from the old machine – Voith’s scope of supply also included stock preparation and approach flow systems, a steam box, a gas hood, and a mist removal and dust reduction system. The order was rounded off by Voith’s automation package, comprised of the DCS and
MCS systems, as well as field services.

Outcomes of the project include an improvement in paper quality and increased production capacity, as the new machine is estimated to produce at a speed of 1,800 meters per minute.

“We are extremely proud of the teamwork demonstrated by all parties involved to safely execute the rebuild within a very compressed timeframe. We are also encouraged by the performance that we are seeing at this early stage of the machine’s start-up ramp and optimistic that this investment will provide additional capabilities and quality enhancements that our customers value,” said Ron Thiry, vice president and general manager at Little Rapids Corp.

With headquarters and manufacturing facilities in Green Bay, Wis., family-owned Little Rapids’ core product lines serve the medical and beauty market segments, flexographic printing for a variety of packaging markets, and tissue, MG paper, and wet crepe paper for the specialty paper market.