Pratt to use Voith equipment at Ohio mill

Pratt Industries, the Conyers, Georgia-based subsidiary of Australia’s Visy Industries, will be installing a BlueLine stock preparation system from Voith at the new recycled-content corrugated packaging mill it is building in Wapakoneta, Ohio.

The BlueLine equipment will allow the mill to produce around 425,000 tons of recycled-content paperboard products per year using mixed paper, old corrugated containers (OCC) and other grades of scrap paper. Pratt expects the mill to be operational by the second half of 2019.

Voith will provide Pratt Industries with what it calls “a full papermaking system, including material handling with automatic wire cutting, reject compactors, sludge handling, water clarification and effluent treatment.” These elements, says the company, are similar to a previous stock preparation system installation by Voith at Pratt’s mill in Valparaiso, Indiana.

“Pratt was very pleased with the Valparaiso installation and the equipment performance there,” says Michael Hmielewski, vice president of project sales, stock preparation at Voith Paper North America. “With those successes, as well as the service and aftermarket support we provide, Pratt was interested in working with us again at Wapakoneta. Now we are working beside them to continuously enhance our services based on the raw material quality fluctuations.”