Dual Jewel

In the northeastern corner of Bavaria, Germany, the Carl Macher core board mill has become the world’s first to install and run the UTurn Dual Speed Split Rotor from ANDRITZ. All of the new components were tailor-made for the specific screen, and installed in a single day that had already been scheduled for maintenance downtime.

And the result? Patrick Stoschek, Production Manager at Carl Macher, says, "Since installing the UTurn, we are seeing major improvements in energy consumption, while screening capacity and quality are virtually unchanged from before.”

PLUG AND PLAY

Patrick Stoschek points out, “We had been looking at replacing some of our older screens but, instead, ANDRITZ asked whether we would consider a rebuild with this brand-new technology. The advantages were obvious; it was just a question of whether it would work – no other mill had used a UTurn before.”

But ANDRITZ was well prepared. Florian Lingauer, Product Manager, Screening, ANDRITZ, explains, “The engineers at ANDRITZ Fiedler regularly brainstorm to come up with ways that our customers might use their existing machinery better. In 2022, a colleague suggested splitting the pressure screen rotor into two parts, to save energy. We came up with a design, and the simulations looked promising. So we built a trial unit at the ANDRITZ pilot plant in Graz, and it was a success. That’s why we were already confident the UTurn would work, before we came to install it at Carl Macher.”

In fact, the technology is notable for its simple, low-risk design, with no need for a major rebuild. At Carl Macher, for example, the housing, basket, and main structure of the screen were all left unchanged. The UTurn, a new bearing unit, split rotor, and new V-belt drive system (that enables the existing single motor to drive the two sections of the rotor at different speeds) were all manufactured to fit the specific screen and installed in a plug-and-play style in a matter of hours.