The Italian Tissue Machinery manufacturer Toscotec have been awarded a contract to deliver a major rebuild to the Spanish mill of ECOFIBRAS ARANGUREN SL., in Aranguren, Zalla Bizkaia - Spain. The rebuild has been designed to reconfigure the existing TM#5 tissue machine into Crescent Former configuration.

ECOFIBRAS ARANGUREN is the Tissue manufacturing facility of the CEL group, which formerly was  KC Aranguren plant, and initiated 2 years ago a new phase as an independent company. This investment is part of the development plan designed to increase production capacity and improve quality to supply current parent reels market, both in virgin and in deinked pulp reels.

The present TM#5 is equipped with a suction breast former and sloped wire configuration, double press section and cast iron Yankee of 4500 mm. diameter.
The max actual operating speed is 1370 m/min with a drying capacity of 101 tpd. In order to produce grades with lower basis weight than today (The required basis weight range is 10 ÷ 36 gsm on the wire) Toscotec will supply to Ecofibras a stock preparation upgrading together with the entire engineering, a fully hydraulic step diffuser headbox TT HEADBOX SL-T and the complete replacement of the wet-end section into the Crescent Former configuration.

The purpose is to get further benefits as well as increase tissue machine operating speed up to 1500 mpm initially, reduce electrical power consumption, improve formation quality and improve MD/CD ratio. Actually the design speed for the new supplied equipment is 1900 mpm, that means the possibility to achieve a future operating speed of 1800 mpm by a following modification of the dry-end section, too.

Ecofibras tissue machine will be the 70th Toscotec’s installed Crescent Former.