ABB to install automation, winder systems to Oji Fibre Solutions' mill in New Zealand
February 19, 2021
Oji Fibre Solutions has appointed ABB to supply a specially-designed winder safety system - the first of its kind in New Zealand - as well as a winder drive control system and DCS880 drives.
The new system features a range of winder safety improvement steps and devices including mechanical guarding (perimeter personnel access control via a retractable fence that keeps operators away from the danger zone), electrical controls (power interlocks), hydraulic controls (with redundancy), optical (safety light curtains) and safe speed monitoring. The creation of safety zones allows operation in one zone to continue when another zone is infringed, improving uptime at the mill.
The automation of manual tasks - such as hands-free threading, set change with automatic sheet cut off, automatic gluing or auto-measuring slitters - also reduces the risk of injury and failure by eliminating hands-on tasks. All of these automatic upgrades both increase winder throughput and remove the operator from exposure to potential hazards. The improved features are all supported by a new operator control panel with safety programmable logic controller (PLC) and new human-machine interface (HMI).
Penrose Mill, which has an annual output of more than 85,000 tons of containerboard liner uses recycled sources collected by Oji Fibre's Fullcircle recycling service. Finished products are supplied mainly to the New Zealand, Australian and Asian markets.
