The Role of Charge and Retention in Effective Wet End Management

The development of paper machines, increasing machine speeds with new, mostly low basis weight and/or high ash content paper grades, as well as the fact that several trends regarding process items have increased the sensitivity of papermaking. At the same time, papermakers are looking for flexibility in the production line. We can say that with all PMs, the biggest benefits with the lowest capital spending can be achieved by focusing on improved wet end management. In order to manage wet end chemistry on a paper machine, our goal is to control subprocesses through which we can influence the operation of the entire wet end with maximum effect. Key measurements and controls are - white water consistency control which is the most effective way to control retention. - charge demand measurement and control which takes care of concentration of the anionic material entering to PM. - ash measurements and controls which are deeply related to retention and paper quality. This paper presents and concentrates to two of these key controls: retention and charge. The purpose of charge control is to give the process control the tools to react to changes caused by amount of dissolved and colloidal material incoming to wet end system. It is called coagulation or fixing control. Retention control is then taking care of retention aid flow to the process by responding any changes seen in white water consistency. It is called flocculation control. Each of these solutions separately, and even more effectively all together, stabilize the wet end operations and so greatly improve the produced paper quality and machine runnability. Practical results will be presented and they are referring to the latest mill cases. We have developed the first wet end measuring system in the late 1980s and control solutions based on this modern measuring technology were completely updated in 1990s. This paper introduces the principle, operation, and results of our unique wet end analyzers (retention and charge) which are at the level of automation solutions as a part of paper machine quality control. Especially our newest member of the platform, on-line charge analyzer has reached and set new standards to the on-line charge monitoring.