TECH TALK

5 questions to Jari Vähäpesola, president of the Paper Business Line at Valmet

Jari Vähäpesola is the President of the 1. Jari, which technological breakthrough do

Paper Business Line at you think has been a game changer for our

Valmet. His extensive experience within Metso industry in the past recent years? And in the future? and Valmet makes him JARI VÄHÄPESOLA: Shoe press in my mind is one of the greaa veteran of the paper test game changers for all paper grades. t has significantly inindustry, and therefore a creased the dry content and runnability of the machines. Steel valuable witness of how cylinders and steel Yankee dryers are the latest ones, which have papermaking technology also improved the drying capacity and increased the efficiency has evolved in the past of machinery. n finishing area, automation has decreased the 20 years. need of personnel in the area where the headcount has traditionally been the highest in operations. There is also number of bigger and smaller innovations improving the energy efficiency of the machines and paper strength properties. Already during the COVID-19 pandemic we have used many digital tools which in the future will change our way of working. Supporting customers remotely will be more common and new tools will help us to optimize operations both in mill as well as in production line level. Target and actions to reduce plastic usage ill bring ne fibre based products. ome of them are already under development, some not no n yet. nteresting is also the usage of micro fibrillated cellulose in different applications in near future. This is now in the focus of our customers and for us as well.

2. Would you say that papermakers in general are eager to try new technologies and processes, or rather conservative?

I would say that we have papermakers in both groups. The biggest group is conservative who always wants to have only proofed technology with plenty of references. There are also papermakers who want to be one step or two ahead of competition and hence, willing to try something new which nobody else has.

3. Producing paper products with the lowest carbon footprint is now a major tren . hat in of so utions wou ou a ise first to a c ient tr ing to impro e his environmental impact?

Number one might be lightweighting and minimizing energy consumption. The same strength properties with 10% lower gms will reduce CO2 emission almost 10%. Valmet has many components to improve strength properties and reduce energy consumption li e refiners, multilayer headbo , sleeve

roll, hard nip sizer, runnability components etc. On tissue side new Valmet hybrid concepts reduce energy usage without compromising the quality parameters of paper. The Advantage ViscoNip press is another technology that has great impact on energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

4. Valmet recently acquired the

Polish machinery manufacturer

PMP. Can you explain the strategy behind this and how it can improve your position on the market?

The acquisition of PMP Group brings together two companies with different offerings, complementing each other. PMP’s product portfolio focuses on small and medium-sized tissue machines and board machine rebuilds. Valmet’s current strength is in technology and services for wide and fast machines and rebuilds. As a result, Valmet will have the widest product portfolio in the market, and we have now also strengthened our core competencies with another 650 dedicated people.

5. How is the COVID-19 pandemic affecting your business globally and what are the prospects for 2021?

COVID-19 has been a challenge to all of us. It has limited our travelling, face to face customer contacts and site operations. However, at the same time it has increased usage of the latest digital tools. Together with our customers we have increased remote work and remote support through our Performance Centres and with our Industrial Internet applications. We have started up new machinery and rebuilds remotely having only limited staff on site and our e perts supporting remotely. We can also run pilot trials remotely from our technology centers. The usage of latest digital tools is in different level today than it was one year ago, and I believe that this change is permanent.