GRAZ, Austria -- Andritz says it will officially open the world's most modern research and development center for tissue, the PrimeLineTIAC Tissue Innovation and Application Center, at its Graz location in March 2018. Final test runs are currently in progress, the company said.

The research center comprises a complete, state-of-the-art tissue production line, including laboratory facilities for tests and trials to develop new products and processes in the tissue sector. It is available to tissue producers and to suppliers, research and development companies, and universities.

Andritz experts from R&D and from the stock preparation, machine design and engineering, automation, and pumps departments are available for collaboration and discussions if requested, however customers can also bring along their own team of specialists.

The PrimeLineTIAC has its own complete stock preparation line together with the approach flow system. Many different kinds of pulp can be processed in one production line, which is split into a separate short fiber and long fiber line.

The tissue production line offers utmost flexibility for the production of conventional, textured, and structured (TAD) tissue. It features eight configurations that are also available on the market as single-machine concepts. So customers can run extensive trials with what could potentially be their future machine configurations. With a design speed of 2,500 m/min and a sheet width of 600 mm, the machine can be operated with either a suction press roll or a shoe press, a regular CrescentFormer or a vertical CrescentFormer, and with a 16 ft. steel Yankee or two 14 ft. TAD drums.

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