Kotkamills Oy to Produce Packaging Board

Published: May 07, 2015

KOTKA, FINLAND | Kotkamills Oy has signed agreements totaling EUR 70 million on equipment deliveries for paper machine 2 to be upgraded in the summer of 2016. The deliveries will be divided between Valmet Paperikoneet Oy and Bellmer Vaahto Paper Machinery Oy. The goal of this investment of more than EUR 100 million is to convert the paper machine product from magazine paper to packaging boards.

The capacity of the board machine will be 400,000 t/a, with the basis weight area of the end product being 150–500 g/m2. Primary products include a high quality Nordic folding boxboard and recyclable barrier board for the food industry.

The company says that, with more and more attention being paid to environmental friendliness when selecting packaging materials, this investment is a response to requests of end-user customers for high quality recyclable barrier board. The new product includes protection layers required to prevent grease, liquids or moisture from absorbing into the package. Reportedly, the versatility of the board is increased by its heat sealing capacity, cleanness, lightness, and first-class printing surface.

In the manufacturing process, company adds, special attention will be paid to the effective utilization of wood raw material, and the minimization of energy, bleaching chemicals, and water consumption per each produced ton. A patent is pending for innovations associated with the manufacturing process.

The barrier board can be recycled without any special measures. Only printing ink, if any, will be removed in recycling. If unprinted, the board can be reused by re-pulping it and using it directly in the paper or board mill's processes. The manufacturing process of the new machine enables the recyclable and environmentally friendly board used in consumer packages to be manufactured cost-efficiently and flexibly without the price of the recyclable product being any obstacle to its use.

Company says the next-generation packaging board with zero plastic content facilitates the recycling activities of consumers as well as food producers and cafeteria and fast food chains that use large volumes of board packages, as there is no need to sort plastic separately. This directly reduces the total costs of the packaging solution.

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