Overcoming the barriers of the new normal in the remote analyzer startup at Arauco Puerto Esperanza
Aug 24, 2021
Last year, before the start of Covid-19, the Arauco mill in Puerto Esperanza, Argentina, acquired a Valmet Fiberline Analyzer and 4 Valmet Filtrate Samplers (Valmet Piston) to replace an old Kappa-i analyzer. The order also included a performance contract, supervision for installation, start-up, and training.
With the borders between countries closed and the advance of the pandemic, after some talks, it was decided that the analyzer startup would take place in the first quarter of 2021, remotely with several remote accesses using different tools. This was the first startup in the world to be performed remotely on a Valmet analyzer. Valmet team gave all necessary support to the customer, performing calibrations, correlations, and the setup of the Modbus link. The Arauco team felt comfortable with the support offered and thus developed a great partnership in this project. Even with the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, the specialist identified the needs of the customer to change a sampler that was not working properly and so we added a new sampler and additional hours of service to the package.
After a lot of work and thanks to the commitment and collaboration on both sides, we were able to install and start the new analyzer in 3 days. With the new equipment in addition to Kappa measurement, we also implemented brightness measurement. Thanks to the advance planning of the activities, ARAUCO was asked to collect samples with non-punctual values so that we could add the calibration curves of the existing points; in this way, we were able to save time with the correlation of data. Since the start of the new analyzer, we have already achieved an excellent Kappa correlation. Therefore, this new analyzer is performing much better than expected, as it has reduced the oscillations or variations that the old one presented and its results are very close to the laboratory analysis”
- comments Leandro Domingues, Application Engineer at Valmet.
SUMMARY
Location
ARAUCO's pulp plant at Puerto Esperanza, Argentina
Advance planning of the activities, ARAUCO was asked to collect samples with non-punctual values so that we could add the calibration curves of the existing points.
Great partnership between the two companies.
Results
Sergio Bandeira Junior, Head of Services and Operations for Automation Business Line in Valmet South America, concludes that “the pandemic has brought new challenges for everyone. But it is in adversity that ideas emerge that force us to do differently what we are used to doing. Performing the remote startup of an equipment like Kappa, it is really something that needed a lot of planning and interaction between Arauco and Valmet. We understand the customer's need, who also understood the difficulties imposed by the situation. Together we rolled up our sleeves and made it happen! It was not an easy task. We had some delays in responding, connection difficulties, we speak different languages. But what at first seemed to be impossible, now we know that it is "difficult". And like everything in life, with practice and teamwork, we make it possible to replace the equipment”.
Keywords
Automation, Analyzers, Remote Startup
This was the first startup in the world to be performed remotely on a Valmet analyzer.
