Machinery safety for paper industry – Stora Enso, Finland

Investment in sustainable consumer board production

Stora Enso, a leading global provider of renewable solutions in packaging, biomaterials, wooden construction, and paper, invested approximately EUR 1 billion to meet the growing market demand by converting the remaining idle paper machine at its Oulu site in Finland into a high-volume consumer board production line.

In addition to AFRY’s engineering services (link to project page), AFRY has provided machinery safety services for converting the paper machine into a board machine with another engineering company as a partner.

Comprehensive support in machinery safety

The collaboration began when AFRY's machinery safety experts assisted Stora Enso with the profitability study concerning the acquisition, CE-marking, and machine safety.

At the beginning of the implementation planning, the machinery safety experts participated in technical negotiations related to machinery safety responsibilities as support for Stora Enso and helped prepare contract appendices. The machinery safety experts also prepared a machinery safety management plan for the project. After that, actions according to the plan were initiated, such as:

• Risk assessments of interfaces and complementary machinery safety audits, for example, the interface between different equipment suppliers, interfaces between new and old machines
• Support for the CE marking process of the machines when Stora Enso is responsible for them (there were very few of these, so the acquisitions were successful)
• General support during the project, including discussions with equipment suppliers.
• AFRY’s machinery safety experts have helped assess the compliance of the equipment suppliers’ delivery content with the machinery directive

AFRY has played a significant role in the project by conducting thorough ATEX and process risk assessments. These assessments are crucial for ensuring safety and efficiency in the conversion process. In a similar capacity, AFRY was involved in the previous OCO project, where they undertook the responsibility of converting another paper machine into a board machine. This previous experience provided AFRY with valuable insights and expertise, enabling them to effectively contribute to the current project.