India's largest producer of branded photo copier and cut-sized office papers, JK Paper Ltd., has awarded a contract to Metso for supply and start up of Metso Paper Lab, paper and board quality analyser, for automatic testing of paper properties at its Rayagada paper mill. JK Paper Ltd. is also a leading player in packaging board and coated fine papers segments in India.

With Metso Paper Lab all quality parameters like tensile, TSO, formation, ISO brightness, roughness, porosity, basis weight and caliper will be tested within a matter of few minutes. Faster measurements of quality will help the mill to take immediate remedial actions and thus help to reduce rejects and improve end product quality. Overall efficiency of the machine will be enhanced. According to the Chief Executive (New Projects) at JK Paper Ltd., Mr Ashish De, the advanced Paper Lab was chosen above conventional laboratory equipment to meet the challenges posed by the high machine speed, scarcity of trained manpower for routine lab testing and last but not least, JK Paper's continuous pursuit of best technologies.

Selection of the supplier was a rigorous process. A team from JK Paper Ltd visited Tamil Nadu Newsprint & Papers' mill to study the feasibility, runnability and performance of Metso Paper Lab. The satisfaction expressed by the team over system performance and feedback from TNPL on service support were important factors in the purchase decision. The long history of successful Paper Lab installations worldwide and important features like compact design, safety features and ease of use, backed by strong service support in India were also key factors in the decision.

Planned start-up date for Paper Lab is in October 2012 when JK Paper's Rayagada mill completes 50 years in operation. What else could be better time to start Metso Paper Lab and thus announce a new era in the history of the mill. Mr Ashish De expressed his belief that this project will be executed to the utmost satisfaction of JK Paper Ltd. and paves the way for further cooperation with Metso.

JK Paper Ltd currently operates two integrated pulp and paper plants, Rayagada (Odisha) and Songad(Gujarat) with combined capacity of 280,000 tonnes/year. Expansion is in progress at the Rayagada mill, to take the production up to 420,000 tonnes/year. JK Paper belongs to the eminent JK Group, which has been operating in various industry segments like automotive tyres and tubes, cement, oil seeds, pulp and paper, power transmission, food and dairy products, and considered as a very respectable organization for the past 100 years.

Metso is a global supplier of technology and services to customers in the process industries, including mining, construction, pulp and paper, power, and oil and gas. Sudhir Pai, Country Manager, India, Automation Business Line, Metso. Mobile: 099302-50104. Email: sudhir.pai@metso.com