April 2021: Machine Building Width
By Jim Thompson
If you walk into an old paper machine hall, you may find it to be a disjointed place. A building with varying roof heights, varying widths and so forth.
Along about the 1950's, depending on what part of the world you live in, the modern machine hall came along. In cross section, it is the same from wet end to dry end.
Is this really what we should be doing?
Perhaps the roof line should remain constant, but what about the width? Why do we need a building at the dryers the same width as the building is in front of the wet end, size press and dry end?
We build the buildings to accommodate the widest need, justifying it on having crane rails such that we can run both cranes the full length of the building.
Perhaps this is extravagant. Perhaps we need a dedicated wet end crane, a dedicated dry end crane and a transverse monorail at the size press. We may be able to eliminate up to a quarter of the volume of building this way, permanently reducing the air we heat and the exhaust we evacuate. To say nothing about the cost of the building.
We are looking at putting together a team to study this. If you would like to be involved, drop me an email.
Jim Thompson
jim.thompson@ipulpmedia.com
