#6 paper machine to run for three weeks

Duane Hicks

FORT FRANCES—The AbitibiBowater paper mill here will be re-starting its #6 paper machine for a three-week period next month.
“We’re planning on re-starting #6 on Sept. 8 for a few weeks to run some glossy grades,” mill manager John Harrison said Thursday morning.
“This is short-term,” he stressed. “We got a bit of a surge in customer requirements.
“So we’re putting the machine back on line to try and help fulfill some customer orders,” he explained.
#6 was idled back on March 1 due to poor market conditions.
In early July, it was re-started for about a week to run tests to see if it could be used to produce different types of paper other than SCA or glossy paper.
In related news, the local mill recently learned the #5 paper machine will get an upgrade it’s needed for several years.
“We got a project approved for our #5 machine to replace the framing on the press section, [which] was originally installed in 1975,” noted Harrison.
“We are going to spend about $4.6 million to tear the old framing out and put new framing in.
“It’s a straight replacement,” he added. “It’s been something we’ve been looking at for two or three years, but we just got approved.”
Harrison said the work on #5 will take place in the early part of the second quarter of next year.
(Fort Frances Daily Bulletin)