PROGRESS AT KAWERAU

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27637, 19 April 1955, Page 8

PROGRESS AT KAWERAU

OPERATION OF PAPER MACHINE TRIAL RUN MAY BE MADE NEXT MONTH (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, April 18. The first wheels of the Tasman Pulp and Paper Company’s £1,000,000 paper machine at Kawerau will turn in a few weeks. A trial run with the drypart section (which completes the newsprint-making process after the wood pulp has been rolled and dried) is expected before the end of next month. The last of the pieces to complete the 300 ft paper machine is due to arrive by ship at Auckland on May 25. A few weeks afterwards the machine will be ready to take pulp for newsprint production. The pulp-newsprint will travel a mile in the machine. There are 60 steam-heated drying cylinders, each weighing 10 tons and a half. The erection supervisor "is Mr J. Holt, a 33-year-old Lancashire a lad” sent by the machine makers, Walmsleys (Bury), Ltd. He has installed seven paper machines in various parts of the world. He recalls that a paper machine, in Pakistan was producing newsprint in five hours, yet a machine installed in Scotland took two weeks to complete the pulp-newsprint cycle. He is a little guarded in making any definite forecast for the Kawerau machine, though he does not expect any undue difficulties. The target for the Tasman Company’s machine is 75,000 tons of newsprint a year. Running at 23 miles an hour it will produce 546 miles of newsprint 22ft wide each 24 hours.

Completed reels of paper will roll off the machine every 10 to 15 minutes.

The.mill manager (Mr E. M. Paukert), formerly of the Abitibi Power and Paper Company, Canada, says that “the way things look, we should get off to a flying start.’’