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I was taught long ago that one should build quality into a product, not inspect it in after it has been made. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? This is why I have always been troubled by the location of gauging systems on paper machines. Look at where they are: at the end of the machine, after the product is made. In the future, we may still have the old stationary gauges in their traditional locations, but I see something totally different right around the corner, perhaps as soon as in five years. What will it be? Autonomous drones carrying a plethora of sensing devices.

What will they do?

In recycled mills they will be hovering over the pulper feed conveyor, assessing the incoming furnish mix, assessing fiber, ash, moisture and other critical attributes. In real time they will feed this data to a real-time master processor. Others will be flying through the dryer section, spot checking dryer surface temperatures in the MD and CD profiles, and, again, feeding the data to a master processor. Over the fourdrinier, HD video will be constantly assessing the table conditions and using software now available, turning this information into actionable digital data, once again, fed into the central processor.

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In virgin-fiber mills, drones will assay the chip piles continuously for moisture, species and lignin content. With this information, the digester can be fed a very consistent incoming fiber stream. Additionally, this data can be fed forward to aid in automatically setting the recipe for the paper machine or pulp dryer.

Before fiber even enters the mill, drones will be hard at work. For recycled fiber consumers, drones will spot check conditions at bailers behind grocery stores, pharmacies and other point collectors in order to assure conditions are maintained to supply the highest quality fiber with minimum outthrows to the mill.

In the forest, especially the small woodlots, drones will replace on-the-ground timber cruising. Airplanes and helicopters can already do this work on large tracts, drones will make it economical to do so on small tracts.

In places where it is legal, drones are already beginning to be used to do high visual work--stack inspections and other such activities. We may see them soon inside machine halls inspecting infrastructure for corrosion and so forth. Exposed cable trays can be easily examined for hot spots and so forth, indicating potential failing insulation.

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We have been excited about drones for a long time here at Paperitalo Publications. Finally, they have arrived on the mill sites and are going to be part of the work team at your mill soon. They have already been used in at least one mill in British Columbia and we expect their limited scope, but widespread use, before the end of 2015.

By 2017, you won't know how you got along without them.

Towards this end, we are announcing the launching of a new newsletter this month, Aerial Arguments. Aerial Arguments (joining Capital Arguments, Strategic & Financial Arguments, Economic Development Arguments and Advertising Arguments) will be a sector focused newsletter bringing forth this technology for the benefit of the industry. Look for it in your email.

What tasks do you think drones can do? Take our quiz this week here.

For safety this week, drones will certainly be used sooner rather than later to enter the scenes of major accidents. Temperature and air quality will be two of their first functions as they assist first responders.

Be safe and we will talk next week.

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