INCAPE successfully completes its historic technical shutdown

Being the one of the largest manufacturers of core stock in Latin America requires overcoming the daily challenge of delivering value to the customer. Therefore, INCAPE works tirelessly to exceed expectations and provide the best experience to all its stakeholders.

At the end of 2021, the company announced the biggest project ever executed during its trajectory, Drying Project (Projeto Secagem), and now celebrates the accomplishment of this memorable challenge in record time.

To complete this historic technical shutdown, it took exactly 132 hours, more than 100 people directly involved in disassembly and assembly, and more than R$ 37 million invested (over $7 million at current exchange rates).

“Over the last five years, we have been constantly investing in new technologies, always seeking to deliver value to our customers. However, this specific project has become a milestone within our company. The resources devoted to a single project and the level of involvement required from the INCAPE team with suppliers was unprecedented. It required a lot of dedication and unparalleled commitment from everyone, as we knew that, in order to deliver everything that was proposed in a timely manner, we needed to excel in all aspects”, comments Thiago Karam, General Supervisor of INCAPE.

The project had the support of excellent professionals and the best suppliers in the market to reach the five-day mark to replace the entire paper machine. The entire team came together for a single objective: to offer the tissue market an industry that is even more specialized for what it proposes, delivering efficiency and cost reduction to converters.

“To our customers, we would like to inform you that the constant evolution of our facility is due to the incessant search to reduce costs in the conversion lines. INCAPE’s R&D pushes all the time in search of solutions for the tissue industries. We run the company with the purpose of delivering value to the customer and solving their problems”, completes Thiago.

For the Drying Project to be accomplished so successfully, INCAPE carried out the management and detailed planning of all stages and processes. The frequent meetings with the company’s team and suppliers involved in the process, in addition to the risk assessment and contingency plan to mitigate failures, contributed to a smooth and uneventful execution.

“Everyone’s commitment, aligned with a high-performance project, made this shutdown a success and placed INCAPE among the one of bigger companies that use the most advanced technologies in equipment, controls and safety in paper manufacturing, consolidating itself as the largest and the best manufacturer of special papers on the market”, declares Paulo Vito, Project Engineer at INCAPE.

 

TECHNICAL DETAILS

The Drying Project consisted of replacing the entire drying system (dryer cylinders), installing new structures to accommodate the new cylinders, new walkways complying with NR12 (Brazilian standard that guarantees the physical integrity of employees), a tail threading system, a new winder, an automatic system for turning over parent rolls, a supervisory system for monitoring and more assertive interventions in the production process, in addition to a new production management system for monitoring stops, breaks and operating costs.

“It was an innovative and challenging large-scale project, a set of activities carried out by the group aiming at a common goal: execution and delivery within the estimated time. Practically a year of studies, ideas and changes in relation to the initial project, some divergences found, the fact of removing the old equipment and installing the new one in the same place, reduced physical space, high work demand, knowing how to deal with different areas and people from different profiles was an essential task to reach the objective”, points out Argélio Faria, Supervisor of Mechanical Maintenance at INCAPE, about the challenges encountered in the process.

These challenges were completely overcome and Argélio believes that “this was the result of good planning, perspective and analysis of possible failures and interferences. The success of this challenge was due to the empathy between the teams; merit to each qualified professional who participated”.

RESULTS

“In a short period of time, the results obtained have been performing better than expected – the result of all our preparation and strategy throughout 2021. Our operations team has done a great job and has shown an incredible ability to adapt”, says William de Souza, Industrial Manager of INCAPE.

The new machine, in addition to being safer for the employees, also presents excellent results for INCAPE’s customers, since now the company will be able to meet greater demands through the great reliability established with the automations implemented, machine stability and stability of the transversal profile of the paper.

“With the highest installed production capacity, now proven with four records achieved in just 15 days of the newly refurbished machine running, our customers are confident that we will be able to meet an even greater increase in demand”, says William.

Everyone in the company is proud of the achievement and works with the motivation of constant growth. “It was five days of hard work and dedication by everyone involved in the process. Seeing the first sheet of paper being rolled up gave us a great adrenaline rush; there were a lot of applause and infinite thanks”, says Dione Keli Viera, INCAPE’s Electrical Supervisor, excited to see the project being executed in such a short time.

“On behalf of the INCAPE Board, I say that we are eternally grateful to everyone who participated directly or indirectly in this project, all employees and suppliers. We recognize the level of difficulty for everything to be carried out within the proposed five days, however, we had no doubts about the capacity of those involved and that is why we insist on saying that companies were, are and always will be made by people”, concludes Thiago.