Production scale tests at Metsä Board to advance foam forming technology

In foam forming technology, a water-fiber suspension is aerated with a stream of tiny bubbles. By using foam forming, the material structure becomes bulkier while lightening the board's weight. In addition, fibers are distributed more evenly in the web, improving formation of the board, and resulting in more consistent properties and appearance.

On top of these benefits, the technology reduces the use of raw materials, energy and water so enhancing sustainability, Metsä Board added.

Metsä Board is a forerunner in developing foam forming technology, and has been undertaking research as part of the Finnish Bioeconomy Cluster FIBIC’s research programs, which have been successfully scaled up together with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. Different phases of research and development have been accelerated through funding support from Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation.

As such, Metsä Board has already done extensive development work over many years to commercialize the new technology, which is expected to result in considerable benefits to its customers.

Metsä Board chief executive officer Mika Joukio said: ‘We have already seen that the technology works in a laboratory environment as well as on pilot machines. Following promising laboratory scale results and our detailed feasibility studies, we reached a decision to invest in further development of the technology on a production machine.

‘Our target is to offer our customers even more efficient and ecologically sound paperboards in the future.’

Valmet, a major machine supplier to the pulp and paper industry, is installing the technology at Metsä Board’s Kyro mill.