Metso manager bags award for work on metal belt calendering

Paper Recycling  |  2012-04-19 05:58:46   |   By

Mika Viljanmaa, Development Manager of Metso's Jarvenpaa unit in Finland, has bagged the prestigious 2012 Marcus Wallenberg Prize for his work on metal belt calendering in paper and board making.

HELSINKI,FINLAND(Scrap Monster): Mika Viljanmaa, Development Manager of Metso's Jarvenpaa unit in Finland, has bagged the prestigious 2012 Marcus Wallenberg Prize for his work on metal belt calendering in paper and board making.

Viljanmaa is a highly prolific innovator, with a total of 120 protected inventions. 57 of these are related to metal belt technology and Viljanmaa is the sole inventor in 12 of them.

The award, which is prize sum of SEK 2 mn, will be given at a ceremony in Stockholm on October 1,2012.

According to the Board of the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, 'The 2012 Marcus Wallenberg Prize has been awarded to Mika Severi Viljanmaa for his ground-breaking development of metal belt calendering technology resulting in better paper print surfaces with less fiber materials and higher production efficiency'.

Moreover, the invention also paves the way for applications in other paper machine sections with the opportunity of becoming a wider platform technology expected to substantially enhance production efficiency, competitiveness and sustainability of paper and board making.

Metal belt technology has made a major breakthrough as a revolutionary new calendering concept for papermaking. Calendering is done to improve the paper surface and thus print quality.Compared with conventional calendering, advanced long nip metal belt calendering technology enables manufacturing of paper and board with better surface properties at a desired level of stiffness and bulk, but with 3-10% less fiber raw material; in addition it decreases energy consumption and yields higher production efficiency.