Investment in technology makes us more efficient and less polluting

The new electronic drive system will allow us to increase speed and commit to energy savings

Since 2021, at Celulosa Gallur we have been committed to the technological renewal of our machinery to achieve better results, in less time and with better energy results.

Last year we made a change in the electronic drive system when detecting an area of improvement in the machinery we had. The cardboard manufacturing machine was driven by a main motor that, by means of a pulley and belts, drove a transmission shaft that in turn had pulleys installed to drive the different reducers that moved from the cardboard formation area, press area, drying area and coil winding area. This system is known as a propshaft.

This mechanical system had a series of main problems such as the limitation to give speed to the machine, an obsolete system with few spare parts and no possibility of improvement, and a lack of 100% guaranteed security.

In January 2022, we decided to entrust Europic with an electronic drive system designed to be able to expand up to twice the speed existing at that time. The system is manufactured with Siemens components and custom designed for Celulosa Gallur manufacturing machine.

Benefits of the new electronic drive system:

With this system we achieve a technological improvement thanks to its frequency inverters, PLCs , motors with precision Encoders , etc… This improvement translates into:

1. Machine Speed Increase: we eliminate the mechanical limitation of the transmission.
2. Energy savings due to the provision of Variable Frequency Drives, which always implies savings in the energy consumption of the network and we increase energy efficiency by eliminating friction and efforts of existing cones and belts with the old mechanical system.
   • Improvements in the synchronism and in the “paper throws” between sections that with the old system were done by manual tensioners with the production losses that occurred due to the slackening of the panels.
   • Very important improvement in Safety since cones and transmission by belts are eliminated, with the consequent improvement in dangers and risks of entrapment.
   • For emergency stops, it does not depend on a mechanical drive that produced friction between the pulleys and belts. These are safely managed by current “Safety Integrated ” units.
3. Reduction of acoustic pollution by eliminating the transmission shaft, eliminating belts, etc…

Greater speed in cardboard drying thanks to the installation of 15 new dryers

Prior to the investment in the electronic drive system, in the year 2021 Celulosa Gallur entrusted an ambitious reform in the cardboard drying area to the company Basalan . Basalan is a benchmark in the paper industry in Spain, having its origins in 1901 as the Basagoitia company as paper engineering, machining and machinery construction.

The order consisted of the manufacture of 15 dryers with a diameter of 1500mm, certified and stamped to be able to work at 6.5 bar pressure and a system for passing the blade through the entire area of the dryer .

In this way, we were able to install a new post-drying area with more pressure in order to speed up the machine and achieve more production while minimizing human risk when passing the paper through the dryers.

At the same time, a change is made in the hood where the dryers are located, providing it with panels with watertight closures and a new electrical installation.

The installation is carried out successfully during the maintenance and reform stoppage in August 2022.

multi-motor drive system installed during Christmas 2022, in January 2023 Celulosa Gallur starts up the paper machine, achieving a production increase of 15% compared to to production in 2022.