BILLERUD – CUSTOMIZED SOLUTION

Switch to Hardox® HiAce improved performance and safety

Discover how pulp and paper manufacturer Billerud cut maintenance and boosted uptime by switching from mild steel to corrosion-resistant Hardox® HiAce.

Enough is enough, said Billerud, when maintenance staff once again had to sort out the logs that kept jamming up the log conveyor. In the machine, the logs are fed continuously from timber trucks and moved into the company’s plant via chains that slide over steel plates. The recurring problem with jammed logs was related to the conveyor’s old design with short plates, causing them to come loose and get stuck. Unplanned maintenance stops with staff having to fix the difficult and dangerous task led to costly downtime. Furthermore, the highly corrosive and acidic environment was too harsh for the previous solution in S355 steel.

• Hardox® HiAce is 2-3 times more resistant to wear in an acidic environment compared to a 400 HB steel

The new solution, built by the Hardox® Wearparts Center Karlstad SST Slitskyddsteknik, specified Hardox® HiAce for both sliding plates and chain guides to resist corrosive wear. SST also used longer plates to minimize the number of joints in the conveyors. “The result was great: the wear was low, the surface was smooth without any cracks, and the wear pattern of the whole surface was uniform”, says Anders Nilsson, maintenance manager at Billerud.