Italian manufacturer of recycled cardboard Cartiera Fornaci has placed an order for ABB’s L&W Autoline paper testing equipment to be installed at its board mill in Fagnano Olona, Italy.

The compact version of the technology unit will automate Cartiera Fornaci’s entire paper testing process.

The company’s mill, which delivers 55,000 tons of recycled cardboard between 360 and 1000g/m² to its customers annually, will leverage the L&W Autoline solution to replace its current manual testing processes.

Some of the mill’s testing is currently carried out manually and in writing, a time-consuming process prone to human error. With the implementation of L&W Autoline, the Fornaci mill team will benefit from automated paper testing, typically 10 times faster than manual testing.

ABB’s L&W Autoline meets current industry standards set by ISO (the International Organisation for Standardisation) and TAPPI (the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry).

The scope of the testing modules includes Bendtsen roughness [calculated from the airflow in the contact surface], thickness, moisture, p-burst, bending 50 mm and grammage.

ABB Italy area sales manager Erik Teunissen commented: “While large mills have historically led the way in adopting technologies enabling digital transformation, smaller mills are increasingly recognising the significant benefits digitalisation and automation offers and its importance in keeping pace with larger players.”

The company recently installed microwave consistency sensors for integrated paper and packaging company Unipak Hellas’s mill in Pelasgia, Greece.