Gardner Systems Latest News
	No. 1 at Jingxing Gets New Steam System
	The steam system on the new No 1 paperboard machine at Jingxing Paper Co. in Zhejiang Province is one of Gardner Systems more recent installations. Originally started up in the summer of 2002, the machine began to have syphon failures as soon as production began to pick up. More than a dozen dryers were valved out at one point. The lesson learned is that outside suppliers are not equipped to select the size and quality of syphons or other gear for dryer drainage systems. Gardner Systems supplied our new joints and syphons in January 2003 and all has gone well ever since. With a reel width of 4850 mm, the new machine was designed to produce 450 tons per day of paperboard in a weight range of 150 to 300 gsm. The current production is 550 metric TPD, a substantial and welcome bonus. The Gardner steam joints have improved insulating sleeves to protect the dryer bearings from high steam temperatures. When the new joints became operational, one of the first things noticed was a drop in bearing temperatures of as much as 40C. Details like this are important to low cost operation. Steam consumption is also excellent. In terms of water removal, the system is at the maximum efficiency of 1.2 kg per kilogram of water evaporated. In this case the unit steam consumption is about 1.4 tons/ton of paper on the dryers. The total steam usage is roughly 15,000 kg/h less than typical for older systems. In America 15,000 kg/h would typically cost about USD 660,000 per year. In addition to Jingxing, recent and current steam system start-ups include PM30 fine papers in Alabama May 2002, PM2 rebuild in France July 2002, PM6 wet end rebuild in Virginia September 2002, PM1 newsprint machine in Arizona November 2002, Zhuhai S.E.Z. Hongta Paper rebuild in Guangdong Province February 2003, and PM1 rebuild in France April 2003. Also completed in 2003 were a syphon replacement on a linerboard machine, PM2 rebuild in Poland in May, several more projects went on line in 2004 and more are going on throughout the current year.