Celebration of the hundredth WinBelt winder at Metso Paper

Published Dec 20, 2002 12.19.00 +2 GMT

The hundredth WinBelt winder is celebrated today at Metso Paper Järvenpää in Finland. The history of WinBelt winders started in the end of year 1988 when the first WinBelt, a rewinder model, was delivered. The first production winder was delivered one year later, in the beginning of 1990. To date, well over one hundred WinBelt winders have been sold around the world.

With WinBelt, rolls are wound on a driven belt bed and a rear drum. Belt bed and winding force allow together an accurate control of roll structure resulting in excellent roll quality in small rolls as well as in large diameter rolls up to 2.1 meters.

The first WinBelt winders were delivered to paper machines producing newsprint or SC-paper. Soon it was discovered that winding force together with the controlled low nip loads make WinBelt winder a perfect choice for coated paper grades as well. The newest field is board and liner. With WinBelt, coated board can be wound to rolls over 2 meters in diameter without a sign of mottling.

The jubilee winder has a trim width of 10.4 m and it is designed to run 2500 m/min. It represents the latest WinBelt technology. The winder is highly automated and equipped with a Metso Continuous Winding function, including a butt-joint splicer, which allows one-man winder operation. This fully loaded WinBelt system will maximize winder capacity and minimize manual work.

Metso Paper supplies the jubilee winder together with its sister winder and a WinBelt SR rewinder to Stora Enso Langerbrugge mill in Belgium. The world's largest and most productive newsprint production line, supplied by Metso Paper, will start up in June 2003.

Metso Corporation is a global supplier of process industry machinery and systems. The Corporation's fiber and paper technology business area, Metso Paper, is the world's leading supplier of technology, systems and equipment for the pulp, paper, converting and panelboard industries. Metso's other core businesses are divided between Metso Minerals (rock and mineral processing) and Metso Automation (automation and control technology). In 2000, the net sales of Metso Corporation were EUR 3.9 billion, and the personnel totaled approximately 22,000. Metso Corporation is listed on the Helsinki and New York Stock Exchanges.

Metso Paper, Inc. Roll Finishing Systems Mr. Ilkka Tuomenoksa Vice President, Sales & Marketing Tel. +358 20 482 7308 Fax +358 20 482 7284 ilkka.tuomenoksa@metso.com