Broadening How You Think of Paper

by guest blogger Kimberly Abrams

Students gathered this morning for breakfast and boarded the bus to head to UPM Raflatac around 8:40 AM. When we arrived, we were greeted with refreshments before the company presentation. The presentation was given by the production manager and an R & D representative. In general, UPM Raflatac is a global supplier of pressure sensitive labeling solutions which mainly includes self-adhesive label materials. UPM Raflatac is a subdivision of the parent company UPM- The Biofore Company and employs 2,800 personnel. The annual sales of the company is 1.5 billion US dollars (or 1.2 billion EUR) and have 11 factories worldwide including sales offices on five continents. The company does labeling for a wide range of markets including pharmaceuticals and food packaging.

The presentations gave background information, history, and a depth breakdown of the company internally, along with examples of the products that are made. The highest demanded product is food labeling. The facility that we visited has 6 coating lines. The main coating used by UPM Raflatac Tampere is silicone which is used in the form of an emulsion. The second half of the presentation, given by the R & D representative, gave insight to the separate markets that the company is involved in, specialty products, environmental impact of labeling, and sustainability efforts. We were then given a tour of the facility which showed us the step by step process of making the transparent films.

After lunch, we leaded to the Valmet Fabrics facility where they make wires and felts for different portions of the paper machine; Valmet is the world leading manufacturer of these products. Our visit started with a presentation given by an R & D specialist and the Production Tech manager. This presentation mainly focused on markets and products that the company manufactures at their facility. These products include press felts, dryer felts, filter fabrics, and shoe press felts. The general process flow by which Valmet makes these felts is: warping, weaving, heat setting, needling, seaming, and inspection. Shortly after the presentation ended, we were given a tour of each workshop; each workshop being a different step of the process.

After we left the Valmet facility, we arrived back at the hotel and shortly departed for the pizza party at Rosso’s, which was organized by TAMK faculty; TAMK is another university of applied sciences located in Tampere.  It was great to see our partner faculty members and a student, Atte, who will be coming to study at NC State for one whol year inm August.  We are ready to welcome 6 new Finnish students for teh 2015-16 school year.