ABB robots raise productivity and ensure safety at Catalyst Paper

05-Nov-2007

ABB robots raise productivity and ensure safety at Catalyst Paper

 

ABB robots are set to yield savings and efficiencies in the roll finishing process of a major Canadian paper manufacturer, with an investment in industrial robotics that, at $2.3 million, is unprecedented in the country's pulp and paper industry.

ABB will develop, install and commission robotic head delivery systems relying on nine IRB 6600 robots at two Catalyst Paper plants in Crofton and Campbell River (Elk Falls), British Columbia.

IRB 6600 is known as the flexible robot, the smallest in its class of power robots, but capable of delivering in the 125 to 225-kilogram payload range. With an arm that bends over backwards, it can be adjusted to suit various production environments without reorganizing the entire line.

Flexibility was a key factor in procuring the contract from Vancouver-based Catalyst, which is a market leader in high quality papers used in publishing.

“Eliminating safety hazards while improving cycle times were additional deciding factors for Catalyst Paper,” says Tamara Mulcahy, General Manager of ABB Canada’s Robotics Division.

By replacing employees with ABB robots in the roll finishing process, Catalyst Paper is drastically reducing the potential for injury from the weight of the rolls and the hot components in the header presses.

The productivity factor
Catalyst will also enjoy a boost in productivity, and while the company keeps productivity and safety figures confidential, the move to an unmanned line will improve consistency, adds Slawomir Smolec, ABB business development manager for robot automation, based in Brampton, Ontario.
High available torque and inertia capability, rigid design and powerful acceleration have earned ABB's IRB 6600 the “Power Robot” title.

“We are confident that Catalyst Paper will secure sustainable savings and significant efficiency gains to their roll finishing process.”
- Sandy Taylor, President of ABB Canada

"What we do know is that we can ensure consistent throughput of 3,288 rolls per day at a 99-percent equipment availability rate, providing that the customer’s finishing equipment keeps pace with ABB robots.
"This represents a major improvement over the manual process, which can typically support similar rates of production only in the first two to three hours of each shift,” Smolec says.

ABB could commit to delivering the requested volume of production because of extensive simulations and cycle-time analyses conducted by the engineering team led by Smolec and application engineer Adrian Kiss.

Sandy Taylor, president of ABB Canada, says the robots will "boost Catalyst’s productivity by redeploying human operators into more value-added activities, and by eliminating the dependence on 24/7 staffing patterns, shift changes, breaks and absenteeism.”

Along with high quality paper, Catalyst also produces market kraft pulp and owns Western Canada’s largest paper recycling facility. With five mills employing 3,500 people, Catalyst has a combined annual capacity of 2.4 million tonnes of product.

ABB is the world's leading manufacturer of industrial robots with more than 140,000 robots installed world-wide.

(l-r) ABB's Joan Moore, Barry Smallwood, Paul Hogan, Slawomir Smolec (at the board), Ed Madden, and Rocco Carbone. Absent: Adrian Kiss, Karel Grande and Brian Richardson.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Courtesy of  ABB