RAS

Periodic internal performance evaluation and/or maintenance done by the plant to the steam system, in combination with an annual/biannual external site service is highly advisable in order to ensure optimal performance of heat transfer along the corrugator, thus optimal production.

However, it is important to stress and make clear that no type of preventive maintenance can completely prevent from an unexpected mechanical failure of a steam trap/non-return valve/blocked strainer/bad-positioned siphon/etc.

In opposition to other type of typical failures that can occur in a corrugator, such as a mechanical failure involved in a Single Facer, the Double Facer belt roll, etc., the main difficulty production teams face with a heat transfer problem is that, unless catastrophic, it won’t have an immediate clear effect on production, thus will most likely result at a first stage in a gradual decrease of production quality and/or speed, followed by a modification of the corrugator operational parameters (pressure set points, wrap percentages, etc., required to achieve a given paper temperature target), as a natural response of the operator to ‘go around’ the problem (a problem that has not been correctly diagnosed or most times not even evidenced) and minimize the consequences of the heat transfer issue on production. On the long term, this modification of the operational parameters becomes a habit, and operators get used to the problem, thus the problem does not exist (until, of course, sometime in the future it is correctly diagnosed and solved, thus affecting once again the operational parameters of the corrugator). In other words: un-stability and lack of repeatable operational conditions with the consequent nonstandard product outcome.

Such a failure, when it occurs, will most likely have an impact in production that will clearly exceed, in economical terms, the overall steam system preventive maintenance budget, thus the importance or, to be more precise, the need of a complementary approach: RAS.

Please contact BAVIERA and ask for further information on RAS