Business Finland 2/2012

2/2012

2/2012 www.business-finland.eu

www.business-finland.eu

kemir

a - ex

pert in

pulp a

nd paper

chemicals

Reducing

Water

Footprint

SAPPI produces quality Finnish paper

Sappi Kirkniemi Mill in Focus

WETENDOut-of-box thinking -

benefi ts of fl ash mixing technology

2/2012 www.business-finland.eu

UPM BiovernoUPM aims to become a major player in the production of renewable, advanced biofuels.

Stora Enso – Manufacturing pulp and paper in an effi cient and sustainable manner

Erlund houses are insulated from outsi-de. The log wall is the bearing structure of the house and the log pro� le panel protects the house from weather im-pacts. The insulation is made of 205 mm Ekovilla insulation – natural cellulose � bre insulation.

Mellilän HirsityöErlund & Co.

Ysitie 34532300 MELLILÄ

FINLANDTelephone +358 2 7671 555

Telefax +358 2 7671 [email protected]

Build Yourof Finnish Core Log!

DREAM HOUSE

Erlund Houses is a family business. Most of the products are sold to Central Europe, especially to the demanding market of Germany.

We build our houses according to the customer’s own plans – go to our web page, see our log house models, and start planning your own dream log house.

The Patented Erlund wall structure

BFKANSI_2-2012.indd 1 17.4.2012 10.00

cutting edge solutions


Business Finland 1/2012Business Finland 1/2012136 137

consists of a tight double tongue and groove log wall, which in turn is pro-tected by an external panelled wall from heart sawn spruce panels. Between them is ekovilla (eco wool) insulation, which is made from recycled paper. This cre-ates a totally natural breathable log wall structure,” says Mr. Erlund. ”As a result less wood is used in construction, which also leads to the building being consider-ably cheaper. Also, since the structure is very sturdy and can withstand all sorts of weather, the building requires less renovation than usual and has a very long lifespan. All of this combines to contrib-ute to a very small carbon footprint.”

Erlund House's wall system has also proven to be healthy for the inhabitants of an Erlund log house. Moisture is un-able to form in the structure because the inner wall is thicker and denser than the external panelled wall. Therefore haz-ardous mold is prevented and the room air stays fresh. In a 2010 customer sur-vey commissioned by Erlund House it was revealed that a significant number of people who had moved into an Erlund log house had experienced a marked im-provement to their health. ”Over 20 per cent of all respondents said that their health had improved significantly after moving in. And we didn't ask whether they were ill or healthy, so you can imag-

ine how many ill people had gotten bet-ter,” says Mr. Erlund.

In addition to the aforementioned ecological, energy and health factors, it must also be said that log houses in gen-eral are visually and aesthetically pleas-ing. Although the general imagination might think that they are mostly suited for the countryside, such buildings are also very well suited for an urban envi-ronment. In that sense log houses also contribute to urban renewal.

Use of private wood

Erlund House is dedicated to the custom-ers and their wishes. Because of this the customers can provide input and influence the shape and form of the desired building. Each building is tailor-made according to the customer's needs and wishes. On its website the company provides models of one- and two-story detached buildings, ranging in size from 55m² to 136m². These are not strict limits, however. Rather, they

are guidelines meant to assist the custom-er in the design of the desired house.

In addition to contributing to the de-sign, the customers can also provide their own wood for the construction. This is common practice for Erlund House, but the great Boxing Day winter storm of 2011 increased demand tremendously. Suddenly forest owners found themselves saddled with an immense amount of fallen trees. ”We were very much affected by the storm. Since Boxing Day we have re-

ceived over 200 orders. In this situation our automated production line gives us an advantage over our competitors,” says Mr. Erlund. According to him, it is more advantageous for private forest owners to provide the wood to Erlund House and have their houses built from that than to sell the wood to a forestry company. ”Even if you make 100,000 euros, you end up paying half of it in taxes, whereas if you subcontract us to manufacture a building from your wood you could save up to 80

per cent. We also benefit by saving storage expenses. In general, if you own forest, you should construct from your own wood.”

That Erlund House constructs houses from naturally fallen wood due to the Boxing Day storm episode also show-cases a particular trait in Finnish forestry and wood construction. Though the for-ests have always been an important part of the Finnish economy, or perhaps be-cause of it, the country is free from the bane of excessive logging that plagues many other parts of the world and results in environmental destruction. Great care has always been taken in ensuring that forestry does not spoil the clean and pris-tine environment for which Finland is re-nowned around the world. Erlund House contributes to this by purchasing their wood solely from private forest owners.

Future prospects

In the end, Tomi Erlund is confident about the future of the log house mar-ket. He sees great potential in its eco-logical aspects. ”A log house is very environmentally friendly. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, and wood is a renew-able resource, after all. With rising fuel costs, people will be looking more and more towards ways to save energy and resources. In that regard, the ekovilla insulation in an Erlund log house is like none other,” Mr. Erlund says.

www.erlund-house.fi

2/ 2012

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFJorma Leppäniemi

EDITORSKlaus SusiluotoSini Pennanen

Piia ViljaJarkko RepoNina Garlo

Michael NaglerKalle Heino

Mervi LepojärviLiisa Leeve

LANGUAGE EDITORDarin NolanQuingbo Xu

DESIGN AND LAYOUTAivo Blum

MARKETINGJorma Leppäniemi

Tel. +358 9 42821012

PUBLISHER Kustannusosakeyhtiö

Perhemediat OyPurpuripolku 6, 00420 Helsinki

Tel. +358 9 42821000 Fax. +358 9 42821030

P ulp, paper and sawmilling have dominated forest usage. On top of these, wood will be-come a more and more important raw material in many other branches too.

One emerging wood-based industry are biofuels. For example, UPM aims to become a major player in advanced, second-generation liquid biofuels for trans-portation. The main raw material of UPM’s hydrotreat-ment biorefinery in Lappeenranta will be crude tall oil, which is a residue of chemical pulp production, mainly generated in the production of sulphate cellulose from softwood.

UPM’s Lappeenranta plant is scheduled to be ready in 2014 and will produce 100 000 tons of diesel annually. One advantage of wood for biofuels is that it is non-food unlike corn used in North America and palm oil derived from the rainforest zone in South East Asia.

Also the other Nordic forest industry giant Stora Enso is considering add-ing biofuels on its product pallet. The company is already a strong player in solid biofuels, and has cooperated with Neste Oil to launch a refinery at a later stage for liquid biofuels. There is already a test unit. Stora Enso is also active in China, planning to build a pulp and board mill in Guangxi.

In this issue we also take a look at the forest industry’s essence as the water-intensive industry. Pulp and paper production requires much energy and water, as well as suitable chemicals to improve paper and pulp grades. Finnish companies can bring in much expertise in these issues.

Kemira is a global water chemistry company serving customers in water-intensive industries. Kemira has extensive knowledge in wet-end applica-tions and managing internal water circulations which give us an exception-ally good understanding of the interaction of chemical processes. Kaiko Ltd. provides both large and small solutions for water treatment, filtration and measuring.

Wetend Technologies offers Trump Jet Flash Mixing of chemicals close to paper machine head-box, which brings considerable cost-saving together with environmental benefits like saving fresh water. Wetend’s reference list consists already of 300 projects.

These are but a few examples of innovative attitudes in Finnish forestry branch. We also introduce several innovative ICT companies like Stonesoft and Comptel.

Jorma Leppäniemi

EDITORIALAnd the winners are – wood-based products

Jorma LeppäniemiEditor-in-Chief

BFKANSI_2-2012.indd 2 17.4.2012 10.00

2 Thailand–aGatewaytoSouthEastAsia8 SustainableWood-basedBiofuelbyUPM14 SAPPIProducesQualityFinnishPaper20 StoraEnsoManufacturingPulpandPaperinanEfficientandEnvironmentalManner26 ReducingWaterFootprint32 Out-of-boxThinkingBenefitsofFlashMixingTechnology38 NewStepsinRejectTechnology42 Insalko–TechnicalTradingfor60Years46 PermanentSolutionsinHPACDesign52 HollmingWorksSpecializedfortheNeedsofHeavyIndustry56 DekraIndustrialOy–ImprovingReliabilityandSafety60 WhereThere’sWater,There’sKaiko64 ConnectingWithQuality68 KoparGroup–ExperienceandReliability72 Metsähallitus–VersatileForestManagement76 TransformingtheForestIndustry80 PunkalivesInnovativeFurnitureisGainingReputationAbroad86 Comptel–AssistingCommunicationsServiceProviders(CS)90 StonesoftCEO,IlkkaHiidenheimo:AgilityNeededinCombatingCyber-Threats94 ErlundHouse–Individual,WarmandHealthyLiving

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Thailand– a Gateway to South-East Asia

There are about 40 Finnish companies in Thailand with their own operations and more than 100 represented by local companies."

Thailand plays an important role in South-East Asian econ-omy. For several decades Thailand’s economy has pro-gressed well in spite of some minor setbacks. “Finland has created strong ties with Thailand,” says Finland’s Ambas-sador to Thailand, Mrs. Sirpa Mäenpää.

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Sanna Leminen, Ulkoministeriö, Dreamstime

Ambassador Sirpa Mäenpää notes that Thailand has been more open than many neigh-boring economies.

“It has been the friendliest country in South-East Asia towards the West, and also an ally of the United States. Another mentionable point is the investment poli-cy. Although governments have changed, the investment incentives offered for foreign entities in Thailand have been among the best in South-East Asia.”

Geographically Thailand’s location as a transport hub and as a gateway to South-East Asia has been beneficial. The workforce is perceived as well-educated, quick-learning, and loyal, and the wages have been relatively low.

“In the 70s and 80s investments came to Thailand because of its cheap labor and the products were exported to the re-gion. In the 1990s the focus changed and the investments started catering for the needs of the growing Thai middle class.”

Since around 2000 the emphasis shifted from labor-intensive industries to more demanding assembly lines, and the products are exported all over the world. Nowadays Thailand is a manufacturing hub for global supply chains, for instance, of electronics.

Although there are already a lot of Nordic investments in Thailand, there might be further potentials created by the upcoming ASEAN Economic Com-munity in 2015.

There are about 40 Finnish companies in Thailand with their own operations and more than 100 represented by local companies.

“I could mention, for instance, Huhtamäki, KWH, Metso Paper, Foster Wheeler, Pöyry and PYN Fund investing in Thailand and the region,” says Ambas-sador Mäenpää.

During more than 10 years, Finnish companies have focused mainly on China in Asia. “Now they are waking up for South-East Asia and India. Myanmar seems to be the next destination, as its political reforms seem to open the country rapidly.”

SirpaMäenpää,Finland’sAmbassadortoThailand

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4 Business Finland 2/2012Business Finland 2/2012

Contract manufacturing

Th ere are major possibilities for Finnish trade and investments, for instance, in energy, environment, life sciences and ICT.

“Th ailand and Vietnam will be very in-teresting options for subcontracting and contract manufacturing for Finnish metal and electronic industries.

“Th ere is a great possibility for new investments. At the moment several Finnish companies are considering in-vestments. Because of confi dentiality we cannot mention their names.”

Th e promotion organization FINPRO can carry out the search for partners (dealers, importers, and joint venture partners) and sourcing suppliers, and market research and applications for the Board of Investment of Th ailand.

Sirpa Mäenpää reminds that Finnish exports to Th ailand also include services, maintenance and management services.

“Also globally trade in services is in-creasing in importance. Actually of all the new foreign direct investment (FDI) to Th ailand, clearly more than half is to the service sector.”

Finnish services are mainly engi-neering services related to energy, envi-ronment, pulp and paper. Examples are Pöyry and AF. Th ere are also several small or medium sized consulting companies from Finland. A new trend of investing is in call centers, contact centers and back-offi ce outsourcing services located in Th ailand, but off ering services mainly to Finnish clients.

Recruitment is an important issue. “Usually Finnish companies recruit

through international recruitment com-panies. Th ese have been long-established in Th ailand and hire sometimes people from universities, particularly in the en-vironmental fi eld.”

The role of ASEAN

Th e possibility of forming a customs un-ion in the region after 2015 seems likely.

Th ereafter most commodity tariff s of the 10 countries will be removed.

“Trade between ASEAN countries and with the partners, such as China, with which ASEAN has a free-trade agreement, has already started to grow. Comparing to other economic blocks such as EU or NAFTA there seems to be still a great growth potential.”

Within ASEAN most duties are al-ready 0-5 percent. Th e ASEAN Econom-ic Community in 2015 would mean not only removing tariff s on goods, but also opening the ASEAN countries for invest-ment, competition and trade in services. Furthermore, the aim is to allow free fl ow

of capital and free movement of skilled labor within ASEAN.

Th ere are still some restrictions in the service sector, for example, in ownership percentages. “Usually the ceiling of for-eign ownership is 49 percent, leaving the majority ownership 51 percent to Th ai partner. Yet for all serious investments it is possible to apply for Th ailand’s Board of Investment privileges, which can allow 100 percent foreign ownership,” reminds Mäenpää.

Th e World Bank considers Th ailand one of the most restricted service econo-mies in the region.

“Besides the earlier mentioned limita-

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5Business Finland 2/2012Business Finland 2/2012

tions on foreign ownership, there exist still several non-tariff barriers restricting free entry and competition.”

Trade fair expertise

Th ailand is known as a holiday destina-tion, but the less known fact is that it is such an important place for trade fairs and conferencing. Should Th ailand mar-ket these events even more eagerly?

“Th ailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau TCEB (www.tceb.or.th) is active in promoting Th ai trade fairs. Th ey con-tinuously have road shows around the world,” says Ambassador Mäenpää.

Th ailand has many regional industry-specifi c exhibitions, which could be good platforms for Finnish companies looking for new market opportunities.

Setback and recovery

Sirpa Mäenpää states that political argu-mentation has not aff ected investment climate. “Political turbulences have af-fected only domestic politics, not foreign investment policies. Most Finnish fi rms in Th ailand have not been aff ected prac-tically at all during the events in Th ailand that have made international news in the last a few years, as in the end the impact was relatively localized. But naturally po-litical risk needs to be considered when trying to get into public projects.”

When looking at economic fi gures the setback largely because of fl oods was considerable in 2011, reducing the annual growth rate to only 0,1 percent.

“However, the economy seems ca-pable of a fast recovery. Out of the 900 factories in 7 fl ooded industrial estates already 70 percent have restarted their operations and another 20 percent are planning to resume the operations by the end of March. Flood prevention and re-construction create a lot of business op-portunities. For 2012 most growth pre-dictions are in the range of 5 percent.”

Th ailand is known as a holiday destination, but the less known fact is that it is such an important place for trade fairs and conferencing."

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6 Business Finland 2/2012Business Finland 2/2012

Mekong co-operation

Ambassador Sirpa Mäenpää is also ac-credited to Laos, Cambodia and Myan-mar. “All these countries are interesting, still relatively poor but rapidly growing. Transparency and governance issues af-fect also businesses.”

Mäenpää believes that Myanmar will off er plenty of opportunities in various sectors as the country is making rapid political reforms and opening up. Finnish

potentials could be, for instance, in ener-gy, environment, mining, ICT, education and health care.

“At the moment the EU and US sanc-tions on trade and investment are still in force, so the fi rms need to take into ac-count the details of the sanctions. Many EU countries are already fi elding business promotion delegations to Myanmar.

“Cambodia’s textile industry suff ered heavily from the global economic crisis. Th ere are interesting possibilities for la-bor-intensive assembly lines. Th e invest-ment atmosphere is open. Th e workforce is not highly educated, but perceived as loyal. Th ere are opportunities, for in-stance, in energy, environment and trans-portation sectors.”

In Laos the main business sectors could be mining, energy and environ-ment.

“Finland supports the development of the co-operation of the Mekong region countries in their joint entities, such as

the Mekong River Commission.“Th ere are also very concrete pro-

grams, such as the Energy and Environ-ment Partnership, which provides seed fi nancing for pilot projects in renewable energy and convenes forum where the project developers, authorities and fi -nancing institutions can meet and fi nd joint interests.”

Before her post in Th ailand, Mäenpää was stationed in Kenya and Nicaragua.

“Obviously Th ailand is a middle-in-come country, unlike my previous sta-tions. I admire how hard-working people in Th ailand are. In the end every country has a particular culture, but everywhere much of people’s everyday lives in cities are the same.”

Thai tourists in Finland

Th ai tourists have also found Finland.“Th ere are Th ai tourist groups coming

to Finland all the time. Most of the tourists seem to enjoy the rather extreme travel experiences – midnight sun golf, cruising

potentials could be, for instance, in ener-gy, environment, mining, ICT, education and health care.

“At the moment the EU and US sanc-tions on trade and investment are still in force, so the fi rms need to take into ac-count the details of the sanctions. Many EU countries are already fi elding business promotion delegations to Myanmar.

“Cambodia’s textile industry suff ered

If tourists become bored with crowded beaches, they should know that there are still long stretches of unexplored beaches with small hide-away resorts."

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7Business Finland 2/2012Business Finland 2/2012

with ice-breakers, reindeer rides, etc.” In a humorous way, Mäenpää says that

Santa Claus is the best-known Finn.However, Finland is known in Th ai-

land also outside the tourist resorts. “Everybody knows Nokia. Industry peo-ple know, for instance, Kone, Metso and Vaisala. All Th ai architects know Alvar Aalto.”

Know-who

When doing business, it is critical to fi nd a right partner. It is useful to understand that in Th ailand, as in many other Asian countries, know-who is often more im-portant than know-how.

“In an important way, business is based on personal relations and trust. One should visit the Th ai partners regu-larly, at least once a year. Th ere should be developed a long-term relationship be-tween directors.

“Finns have fewer problems to adapt to Th ai business culture than many other Westerners do. Our modest attitudes and

not too complicated English language fi t very well with Th ai customs.”

Ambassador Mäenpää also says that it is good to go outside of typical tourist resorts. “If tourists become bored with crowded beaches, they should know that there are still long stretches of unexplored beaches with small hide-away resorts. Personally I love snorkeling. Although bleaching of corals has caused some limi-tations of places for diving or snorkeling, there are still many great places.

“Also, do not forget mountain areas with their water falls and hill tribes. In Bangkok there are excellent restaurants for all tastes. Many of my guests like Th ai cooking courses. And if one does not want to rest only in the beach, health spas pro-vide excellent opportunities for relaxing.”

In regard to FINPRO services for South East Asia, interested fi rms can turn to FINPRO representative Mr. Kai Tuo-rila (e-mail: kai.tuorila@fi npro.fi ).

Th ailand Convention and Exhibition TCEB (www. tceb.or.th).

Pulp and paper

Pulp and paper sector in Th ailand is rela-tively strong. According to FINPRO anal-ysis per capita paper consumption was 59 kg in 2010 and is projected to be 79kg in 2015.

Pulp industry can produce all short fi ber pulp (1,1 million tons per year) to meet the country’s needs. Th ere is a need to import some long fi ber pulp (0,5 mil-lion tons per year). Local eucalyptus trees have short fi ber, and they grow to the full length in 7 years. Finnish forests mainly utilize long fi ber and forest growth is much slower. Nearly all pulp is produced from eucalyptus, some from bagasse from sugar industry. Th ailand imports some newsprint, paperboard and long-fi ber pulp. It exports kraft paper and copy/writing paper.

www.fi nland.or.th

8 Business Finland 2/2012

Finnish forest industry giant UPM invests in a biorefinery producing biofuels from crude tall oil in Lappeenranta, Finland. The industrial scale investment is the first of its kind globally.

UPMSustainable

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: UPM

Wood-based Biofuel by

9Business Finland 2/2012

The Lappeenranta biorefinery will produce annually approximately 100 000 tons of advanced second generation biodiesel BioVerno for transport. The construction of the refinery will begin in the summer of 2012 at UPM’s Kaukas mill site and be completed in 2014.

Petri Kukkonen, the Director of UPM Biofuels, says that the planning has pro-ceeded well and is in schedule.

“The technology used in the forthcoming refinery is delivered by the Danish company Haldor Topsoe. Haldor Topsoe has strong expertise in hydrotreatment technology, which is the basis for refining in Lappeenranta,” says Kukkonen.

“The new biodiesel produced by UPM is called BioVerno. BioVerno is a sus-tainable advanced biofuel with similar quality to fossil diesel. We use only non-food, wood based raw materials, e.g., tall oil, which is a residue from pulp manu-facturing.”

PetriKukkonen,theDirectorofUPMBiofuels



BioVerno is perfectly suited to cur-rent and future diesel motors. UPM’s advanced products can be used in higher blends in fossil fuel than conventional, fi rst generation biofuels. It also reduces particulate and Nox emissions.

UPM’s total investment on refi nery will amount to approximately 150 million euros. Th e most expensive part of the de-livery is hydro process reactors and other equipment.

Th e construction of the biorefi nery off ers work for nearly 200 people for ap-proximately two years. When production commences, it will directly employ nearly 50 people and indirectly about 150 peo-ple.

UPM’s biofuel will be distributed in Finland. Also most of the raw material is domestic, but some will have to bring from abroad, according to the market situation.

Kukkonen says that the biorefi nery in Lappeenranta is the fi rst signifi cant investment in a new and innovative pro-duction facility in Finland during the ongoing transformation of the forest in-dustry.



Positive test results

UPM has done motor tests with BioVer-no with third parties like the well-known German FEV Motorentechnik GmbH, VTT and Turku University of Applied Sciences.

“Th e test results have been very posi-tive. Th e fuel quality is high, and with this innovation it is possible to decrease greenhouse gas emissions of transport up to 80 percent in comparison to fossil fuels. Th e product’s characteristics cor-respond to those of traditional oil-based fuels and highly complement today’s ve-hicles and fuel distribution systems,” says Petri Kukkonen.

“Th e Lappeenranta refi nery is a truly pioneering eff ort. It is the fi rst step on UPM’s way to becoming a signifi cant producer of advanced second generation biofuels.”

BioVerno is one example of UPM’s successful innovation potentials.

“UPM invests about 50 million euro in research and development at yearly level. About half of this sum is dedicated to new technologies and business models. Biofuels play an important part in R&D, and Lappeenranta is one of UPM’s spear-head projects,” says Kukkonen.

Experience in raw material handling

BioVerno was developed by UPM in coopera-tion with some technology companies. Some traditional strengths also count for the smooth production.

“We have profound experience in manag-ing raw material fl ows. Lappeenranta is a large integrated production facility, which gives benefi ts in energy usage and infrastructure, for example. We have effi cient, innovative tech-nology and extremely good products.”

“BioVerno is using wood based raw ma-terial, tall oil, a residue from softwood pulp making (i.e., the kind of pulp making that uses conifer as the raw material). It will be in the forefront of the biodiesels, as it will be the fi rst wood based advanced biodiesel in the world.”

UPM invests about 50 million euro in research and development at yearly level. About half of this sum is dedicated to new technologies and business models."



Sustainability and profi tability

UPM’s future biorefi nery’s production will cover one fourth of Finland’s climate and energy target of having 20 percent share biofuels in transport by the year 2020.

“It is estimated that the demand for bi-ofuels will increase globally. For example, in the EU area the demand for biodiesel will increase 7 percent every year for the next ten years.

“It is not easy to give exact fi gures on the market shares of biofuels, but we fol-low the situation carefully. We have our own experts and partners with whom we study the global biofuel business, and not only biofuel, but also oil and gas indus-try,” says Kukkonen.

“We have made careful profi tability calculations, and we see good business in biofuels also in larger terms. All in all, the biofuels business has excellent growth potentials. Th e quality of our end product and its environmental characteristics has gained signifi cant interest from a wide range of customers, and the investment is profi table.”

We have made careful profi tability calculations, and we see good business in biofuels also in larger terms. All in all, the biofuels business has excellent growth potentials."all, the biofuels business has excellent growth potentials."



“In the fi rst stage the value of BioVer-no business is hundreds of millions of eu-ros, but will eventually become a business in the scale of billions of euro.”

Although UPM did not apply for pub-lic investment grants for the project at the Lappeenranta plant, it is active in EU wide programs. According to Kukkonen, UPM will assess its other biorefi nery plans after the EU has decided on its in-vestment grants.

“Th e EU is expected to decide on the NER300 (New Entrants Reserve) grants in the second half of 2012. Th e aim of the NER300 is to support and facilitate the usage of new technologies. With NERs the EU aims to reduce its carbon dioxide footprint and also diminish the depend-ence on oil. Finances for NER are collect-ed through EU’s emissions trading.”

Bio oil with pyrolysis

UPM’s biodiesel and other biofuels (like bio oil) production concepts are all based on wood based raw materials that do not come from food chain. Th is is an impor-tant competitive advantage.

In addition to BioVerno biodiesel, UPM is developing with Metso, VTT and Fortum bio oil. Th e idea is to utilize en-ergy wood, such as bark, stumps, other logging residues and sawdust.

“With pyrolysis method liquid heavy bio oil could be manufactured in connec-tion of power plants. We study the possi-bility to use bio oil as the raw material for biodiesel,” says Petri Kukkonen.

UPM and Biofore

Th e Lappeenranta refi nery is a pioneer-ing eff ort, and also a focal part in the re-alization of UPM’s Biofore strategy.

Biofore is a new industry category UPM has created to describe the future

of the company. While the word “Bio” stands for future orientation, sustain-able solutions and good environmental performance, the word “fore” stands for forest and the company’s position at the forefront of development.

As the Biofore Company, UPM’s vi-sion is to integrate the bio and forest industries. Th e target is to create values from renewable and recyclable materials by combining expertise and technologies within fi ber-based, energy-related and engineered materials businesses. BioVer-no is just one example of UPM’s Biofore strategy.

For more about Biofore, see: www.upm.com/EN/ABOUT-UPM/biofore-in-

action/Pages/default.aspx.action/Pages/default.aspx.


We produce three types of papers here in Kirkniemi. We have three different machines, one for each paper."

MarttiSavelainen,DirectorofKirkniemiMill


SAPPISappi Limited is a large South-African forest industry group which is one of the world leaders in pulp and paper production. Sappi, originally South African Pulp and Paper Industries Limited, has been producing paper in Finland since 2009.

“Sappi employs around 600 people in Kirkniemi mill, in Lohja Finland,” tells Martti Savelainen, Kirkniemi mill director. The mills speciality is

to produce and develop light-weight publication papers for demanding end-uses. The factory pro-duces three different kind of paper: Galerie Brite, Galerie Lite and Galerie Fine. Kirkniemi mill is the only factory in the world which has the technol-ogy and material to produce these papers and they export the paper to all over the world.

“We produce three types of papers here in

Kirkniemi. We have three different machines, one for each paper. The paper we produce is suitable for the use of different kinds of publications. We do not do any design here in Kirkniemi mill, but we con-centrate on taking care of the quality and consist-ency of our product. The product we produce stays the same, but it develops throughout the years.”

The Kirkniemi mill was founded in 1966 and was previously owned by M-real, before Sappi bought the factory at the end of 2008. The mill is located 70 kilometres west of Helsinki in southern Finland.

Text: Piia ViljaPhotos: Sappi

Produces Quality Finnish Paper



Galerie Brite

Galerie Brite is coated light-weight paper with bulk, soft gloss and brightness. It is glossy, coated wood-containing paper with an improved brightness with first-class opacity. It is a very high quality paper, which for example, Capital, Better Homes, Photo, Finnish magazine Me Naiset and some foreign gardening magazines print their magazines on.

Galerie Brite is between 57-80gsm. GSM stands for Gram-mas per Square Metre – and it is how the thickness of paper is measured. Normal office paper is either 60 or 80gsm.

The paper has special, distinctive character through its unique coating. It has a pleasant look and feel with a bal-anced set of properties. It has a soft reader friendly gloss, high bulk and stiffness. Galerie Brite has good image repro-duction quality and it features even print surface, sharp dot definition and good brightness. It is a choice of magazines, catalogues and brochures.

Galerie Lite

Galerie Lite is an ultra light-weight coated paper with high bulk and opacity. It features film-coating technology and tai-lor-made pigments for optimal properties in low basis weights.

Galerie Lite gsm is 36-54. Due to its extremely light weight savings are made in transport and it enables reduc-



tion of basis weight by 3-6gsm. The paper has good image reproduc-

tion quality and it has even print result, low dot gain, good gloss and brightness. Due to its light weight it is the choice of high circulation magazines, high volume catalogues, inserts and leaflets. For exam-ple Newsweek and many TV-guides are printed on Galerie Lite.

Galerie Fine

Galerie Fine is a coated fine paper with high brightness, smoothness and im-proved opacity. It features specially for-mulated pulps and innovative coating

technology. Galerie Fine’s smooth surface ensures accurate reproduction of colours and finest details.

Galerie Fine’s gsm is 65-100. It has low basis weight and excellent image repro-duction quality.

Galerie Fine has fresh look and live im-ages. It has high-gloss finish for glamorous glossy reproductions and smooth silk finish yielding outstanding gloss contrast. Galerie fine has pure white shade for natural colour reproduction. Galerie Fine is a choice of high quality magazines, customer maga-zines, catalogues and brochures. Maga-zines such as ELLE, Marie Claire, Vogue and Bazaar are printed on Galerie Fine.

Exports and turnover

Of the paper Kirkniemi mill produces 94 percent is exported. Main export markets are: Germany which is 10percent of the mills turnover; Poland 10 percent, the United Kingdom 7 percent, France 6 per-cent, United States of America 5 percent, Spain and Italy are both 3 percent.

“All in all we have 70 different coun-tries we export our papers to,” Martti Savelainen informs.

From the whole of Sappi’s turnover Kirkniemi mills share is 17 percent. “Our turnover is around 7.3 milliard dollars, which is around 500 million Euros,” Mar-



tti Savelainen discloses. Due to the technological advances,

global paper market is changing its shape. Whereas paper consumption is declining in Western Europe and in America, in Eastern Europe, India and South America the consumption is growing.

“Europe is significant market for us. At the moment Western Europe is acquir-ing less paper and the market is declin-ing there, but then in the other hand, in Eastern Europe the market is growing. This balances out the market differences,” Martti Savelainen tells.

In global level Sappi produces 55 percent of their products in Europe, 24 percent in Southern Africa and 21 per-

cent in North America. 48 percent of the sales come from Europe, 22 percent from North America, 13 percent from South-ern Africa and 17 percent from Asia and other countries.

Ecology

“Naturally we value ecological values here in Sappi. Our factory works in sus-tainable and respectful manner and we value people working here and the envi-ronment and nature we work in,” Martti Savelainen tells.

The paper Kirkniemi mill produces is developed nature in mind. The idea is to have the qualities of heavier paper in light

weight paper. This way the product uses less material, less wood and energy, less carbon dioxide and less transport costs.

“Big circulation magazines and cata-logues prefer the lighter paper we pro-duce since it lessens the transport costs and therefore causes less carbon dioxide emissions. Lighter papers have lighter impact on nature in every level,” Martti Savelainen enlightens.

Kirkniemi mill has environmentally sound technologies and they have mini-mized water consumption which is now far below industry average. The mill con-centrates on efficient waste water treat-ment, clean energy production and uti-lisation of by-products and waste. Wood

Kirkniemi mill is located next to Lohja-lake. It is a popular holiday destination and we want to take part for making sure the lake stays clean."



to the mill comes from carefully tended private family forests which have PEFC-forest certification. In 2010 their perfor-mance exceeds best available technology targets.

“Kirkniemi mill is located next to Lohja-lake. It is a popular holiday desti-nation and we want to take part for mak-ing sure the lake stays clean. We have put emphasis on cleaning and recycling. A while ago we also voluntarily dredged the lake and lifted 30,000 tons of waste out of the lake,” Martti Savelainen informs.

In global level all of Sappi’s wood is obtained from natural and plantation forests. Throughout Sappi’s operations, water and chemicals are re-used and re-cycled whenever possible. Approximately third of Sappi’s energy needs in Europe are provided by bio-fuels and products are transported by rail and canal. Sappi products are recyclable and the materials Sappi uses for packing are mostly paper, cardboard, polyethylene and wood.

Sappi Limited Worlwide

Worldwide Sappi employs 14,900 people and it is world’s largest manufacturer of chemical cellulose with production ca-pacity of 800,000 tons a year increasing to 1.3million tons in 2013. Sappi sells their products in over 100 countries and they manufacturing operations take place in four continents.

Sappi’s chemical cellulose products are used worldwide. The cellulose can be used in create viscose fibre for clothing and textiles, acetate tow, pharmaceuti-cal products as well as in wide range of consumer products. Sappi also produces different kinds of paper products world-wide. The papers can be used in produc-tion of books, magazines, direct mail and many other print applications.

Sappi Limited is listed in stock ex-change in Johannesburg, London and New York.

www.sappi.com


Stora Enso

Stora Enso is constantly looking forward, seeking inno-vative solutions for customers, while acting under the basis of global responsibility towards the planet. The company's upcoming board and pulp mill in China is an example of both of these aspects.

Text: Michael NaglerPhotos: Stora Enso

The forest industry offers a unique, renewable and recyclable resource alternative to many solutions based on fossil fuels. Because of this, the industry's long term prospects are good,” Mr. Peltola contends.

Manufacturing Pulp and Paper in an Efficient and Environmental Manner


JoukoKarvinen,CEO



In its current incarnation, Stora Enso dates back to 1998, when it was formed by the merger of the Swedish mining and forestry

company Stora and the Finnish forestry company Enzo-Gutzeit Oy. However, the company's origins lie further in the past. Enzo-Gutzeit's precursor was founded in Norway in 1860, while Stora has existed since the granting of a royal charter in the middle of the 14th century. The company therefore has a long and proud history, and since the merger in 1998, it has gone from strength to strength. In 2002, it was the world's fifth largest pulp and paper manufacturer in terms of revenue and in 2005, it was the world's largest pulp and paper manufacturer by production ca-

pacity. Stora Enso's revenue in 2011 was 11 billion euros.

Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Stora Enso employs 30 000 people in more than 35 countries worldwide. Its annual production capacity is 4.9 million tonnes of chemical pulp, 11.8 million tonnes of paper and board, 1.3 billion square metres of corrugated packaging and 6.0 million cubic metres of sawn wood products, in-cluding 3.1 million cubic metres of value-added products. Stora Enso purchases most of its wood from private forest own-ers, state forests and companies in Fin-land, Sweden, the Baltic States, Continen-tal Europe and Russia. Around six percent of the wood is from tree plantations in the Southern Hemisphere.

New mill project

On 20 March 2012, Stora Enso announced plans to build a plantation-based integrat-ed board and pulp mill in the city of Bei-hai in Guangxi, China. The investment is worth approximately 1.6 billion euros. In-itially, the site will include a state-of-the-art paperboard machine with a capacity of 450 000 tonnes per year, including energy plant and auxiliary facilities. The board

China



and pulp mills will be self-sufficiently integrated with wood supplies from 120 000 hectares of self-managed eucalyptus plantations. Ultimately, Stora Enso aims to double the facility's paperboard capac-ity at a later stage.

“Stora Enso has been present in the province of Guangxi since 2002, when we began our tree plantation operations,” says Lauri Peltola, the company's Head of Global Identity. “The decision to build the

board and pulp mill was made in March 2012. Once we have received the required permits from the authorities, we intend to have the pulp mill and paperboard ma-chine ready by the end of 2014. Any pos-sible expansions to the facility will be an-nounced separately, when the time comes.”

The mill's operations will be managed by an equity joint-venture company es-tablished by Stora Enso and the Guangxi Forestry Group, a state-owned company

under the Guanxi provincial government. The joint venture will serve the fast-grow-ing market for liquid packaging board and other consumer board grades. The fibre-based liquid packaging board seg-ment is one of Stora Enso's strategic fo-cus areas. Through this investment, Stora Enso seeks to benefit from the future growth in demand for fibre-based packag-ing solutions for food in China. “Besides fibre-based liquid packaging, our other strategic focus areas are wood building solutions, bio materials and a competitive paper business,” says Mr. Peltola.

Stora Enso's activities in Guanxi are not limited to constructing the mill and operating tree plantations. The com-pany also supports the development of the region through its Community De-velopment Fund. The Fund channels fi-nancial support for the development of education and infrastructure activities in local villages. “Stora Enso co-operates with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The UNDP has conducted an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) of the project. A new ESIA summary report will be pub-lished in 2012. Stora Enso is currently co-operating with numerous interest groups in Guangxi. We monitor the environ-mental effects and social change in the region, together with Guangxi University. We are also working with Flora & Fauna International, which is investigating the biodiversity in Guangxi. We are also working together with forest certification organisations,” says Mr. Peltola.

EucalyptusnurseryinNanning,Guangxi,ChinaChina

EucalyptusplantationinChina



Environmental responsibility

The aforementioned work in Guangxi is just one example of how Stora Enso takes environmental and social matters into account when operating around the world. Environmental awareness and the use of renewable raw materials are built into the company's mode of operation. “Stora Enso's bio material, paper, packag-ing and wood products provide customer solutions that are based on renewable re-sources. The products provide a climate friendly alternative with a lower carbon footprint to numerous competing prod-

ucts that are made from non-renewable materials,” explains Mr. Peltola.

“Environmental questions are taken into account in all of our operations,” he continues. “From the planning and managing of tree plantations, to evaluat-ing and enacting the environmental ef-ficiency of the mill. In this, the UNDP's ESIA, among others, provides a robust platform for the project. At the moment, we are also preparing our tree plantations for forest certification. This way, a neutral, outside body can inspect the environmen-tal and social questions that are related to our tree plantations.”

Stora Enso has also made investments in the field of bio energy. To this end, Sto-ra Enso and Neste Oil have constructed a bio-fuels test facility in Varkaus, Finland. The technology will also be utilised in Guangxi. “Our Beihai mill investment will be based on the latest envi-ronmental technology. Spe-cific attention will be paid to the mill's energy use and emissions. The mill will max-imise the use of biomass and renewable fuels in order to minimise carbon emissions,” Mr. Peltola explains. He adds further that Stora Enso and Neste Oil are currently seek-ing EU backing for their joint bio-energy project.

Transportingeucalyptus,China



Past, present and futureStora Enso and its components have come a long way from their begin-nings in the copper mines of medieval Sweden and a sawmill in 19th century Norway. From such beginnings, the company has advanced to its current position at the forefront of the global pulp and paper industry.

Naturally, the Beihai mill project is currently the largest item on the company's agenda, but there are also other projects on the horizon, such as the aforementioned joint bio-energy project with Neste Oil. During the 2000s, Stora Enso made several significant land and tree plantation investments in South America, as well as a pulp mill invest-ment via the joint venture Veracel. “With regards to Veracel, we have received an environmental permit for its expansion, but we have not yet made a decision with regards to constructing it,” says Mr. Peltola.

www.storaenso.com

Eucalyptusharvesting,Bahia,Brazil.

HalfofVeracellandisreservedforconservationofrainforestinBahia,Brazil.

Veracelnursery,eucalyptusplants,Eunápolis,Bahia,Brazil.


REDUCING WATER FOOTPRINT

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Sini Pennanen, Kemira

As an expert in both pulp and paper chemicals, Kemi-ra can offer competitive advantages to its customers. In larger terms the company’s goal is to be the lead-ing water chemistry company.

Kemira is is a global water chemistry company serving custom-ers in water-intensive industries. Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Kemira offers water quality and quantity management improving customers’ energy, water, and raw material efficiency.

An important cornerstone in success of Kemira is keen development work. Strengthening the company’s R&D and application expertise net-work in growth markets is high on agenda at Kemira Paper segment.

According to Mikael Svedman, the Vice-President of R&D and Technol-ogy of Kemira Paper, in practice the water quantity and quality manage-ment means several things:

“It is about enhancing the energy and raw material savings by re-using as much water as possible in the production processes, which means closed water circulation systems. It is also about improving the environmental sustainability, keeping the production equipment clean of microbes, as well as ensuring the runnability of production processes and making top quality end products, world class printing papers, news print, carton boards and tissue products. Kemira invests extensively in research and development,” says Mikael Svedman.


We offer chemical products and integrated systems that help customers in the water-intensive pulp and paper industries.”

MikaelSvedman,Vice-President,R&DandTechnology,KemiraPaper.



In Espoo’s R&D center the company has more than 200 employees. Other R & D units are in Atlanta, Shanghai and Sao Paulo. Globally Kemira has about 350 persons in R & D.

“All our R&D centers are part of the Center of Water Efficiency Excellence (SWEET), which was established in March, 2010 with VTT Technical Re-search Center of Finland. Industrial and other research partners are also involved.”

Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency

for Technology and Innovation, provides funding to SWEET. However, even with-out counting Tekes funding and SWEET, Kemira already spent almost 40 million euros on R&D in 2011.

A complete selection

Kemira offers chemical products and in-tegrated systems that help customers in the water-intensive pulp and paper in-dustries.

Mikael Svedman says that Kemira is the only supplier with a complete selec-tion of pulp and bleaching chemicals cov-ering also water treatment solutions.

“This means that we have excellent capacities to provide on-site production like in the chemical islands for our cus-tomers.”

“The ability to integrate pulp chemis-try with paper chemistry, and bring our extensive water chemistry know-how to the table as well, is an important advan-tage in both pulping and papermaking.”

Kemira chemicals are used also in board making, for example, for retention and hydrophobation of the board. Hydro-phobation means that it resists water to some extent, being waterproof like a car-ton of milk. Retention polymers are used during dewatering in the wet end to bind the fine materials and fibers together. Kemira also has agents to improve print-ability of paper and board.

Whether customers use chemical, me-chanical or recycled fibers, Kemira has tools to add value to their process,

“For papermaking, we offer tailored concepts for printing & writing papers, packaging & board cartons and tissue papers. We have extensive knowledge in wet-end applications and managing in-ternal water circulations which gives us



an exceptionally good understanding of the interaction of chemical processes. This provides a solid platform to provide our customers total chemical manage-ment for their papermaking process.”

Chemical islands

When it comes to Kemira’s revenues from pulp and paper chemicals, Europe is still the largest market.

“We are one of the leading operators here, in the top three. In North America we are also strong. In Asia there is no pulp and paper chemical manufacturer that could be regarded as leading,” says Svedman.

“We have had growth in Asia, but there is still much to do. We aim to es-tablish production close to the customer.”

One example of Kemira’s close-to-customer approach is its chemical fac-tory in Nanjing, China, which will launch production already late this year. The facility will be a state of the art regional production hub for a range of specialty

process chemicals serving all of Kemira’s customer segments.

“More than half of the global increase in paper demand comes from Asia, and China represents the major part of the growth in Asia, so we will continue to in-vest in the production there.”

Kemira also does full chemical supply

for single pulp mills. For example, in Fray Bentos in Uruguay, the company takes care of manufacturing all chemicals in an on-site unit, which is just next to UPM’s kraft pulp mill (formerly Botnia’s mill).

“With these kinds of chemical islands the customer gets the needed substances right from the factory area.”



Recycled fiber

Production of chemical pulp is growing fast in South America. Recycled fiber, however, is the fastest-growing fiber of all. Svedman emphasizes that Kemira’s

toolbox includes both high-volume and specialty chemicals for all types of fiber needs.

“For example, fiber-based packaging

solutions develop, and in this process the best possible chemicals are needed. Kemform and Fennobond product family gives strength. It is possible to manufac-ture lighter packaging products.”

Recycling business is still enlarging. Capacity is being added the fastest in China in this area.

“In big picture, paper and paperboard products increasingly contain recycled fiber. About 50-60 percent of all pulps are recycled fibers. However, recycled fiber is a very complicated material and involves a number of significant chemical chal-lenges.

“Brightness is just one issue. Quality stability, strength, runnability and envi-ronmental demands on de-inked recy-cled materials also count.

“When talking about recycled fiber it



would be good to remember that water is also recycled and re-used more and more. In pulp making, for example, the same water may be used 10-15 times.”

In the 1970s production of a ton of pulp required 250 m3 of water in Finland; today 10-40 m3 is enough.

Closed water cycles may also have problems like slime and microbe growth, but there is development in this field. Kemira’s solutions to these are automatic chemical controls and remote monitoring.

Water obstacles and opportunities

Mr. Svedman reminds that pulp and paper is just one cornerstone of the company. “Water with certain chemicals is needed even in utilizing gas and oil sources. Also

modern metals and minerals business often uses methods which require much water and in many cases chemicals or mi-crobiological solutions.

“In whichever industry branch, we aim at process and raw materials efficien-cy, water re-use approach – with these we create end use value.”

In Mikael Svedman’s view, water in-deed cannot be ignored in any branch. The company has advanced materials and chemicals to offer for water management.

“There are many obstacles with water. There may not be enough water in some areas, it can be environmentally non-sus-tainable to utilize, or it is too expensive.”

For example, China has taken the wa-ter challenge seriously. Some environ-mental regulations in China in fact are stricter than in the West.

China has tens of megacities, which put much pressure on finding the best municipal water systems. The vast coun-try also has much water-intensive indus-try and varied agriculture.

Mikael Svedman believes that each and every country should create its own water strategy.

www.kemira.com

Water management tools – water as strategic raw material

There is an Alliance for Water Stewardship organization (AWS) that internationally develops water management tools – wa-ter as a strategic raw material. The World Business Council for Sustainable Develop-ment (WBCSD) also has similar tools, for example, Global Water Tool.


OUT-OF-BOX THINKING

THE BENEFITS OF FLASH MIXING TECHNOLOGY

JouniMatula,CEOofWetendTechnologiesLtd.


The big picture is that chemicals have an increased, very important role in the efficient production of paper and board. “With our technology, manufacturers can

have the better utilization of additives and chemicals,” says Jouni Matula, CEO of Wetend Technologies Ltd.

There will be no overdose of chemicals with Wetend’s TrumpJet Flash Mixing technology. The system can be applied to all grades of papers and boards and

manufacturing processes. “The effective flash mixing of chemicals close to

paper machine head-boxes brings considerable cost savings, together with environmental benefits,” says Matula.

Additives are saved and sheet quality is improved. The sustainability of paper and board production plays an important role. With TrumpJet, the use of fresh water is eliminated completely with considera-ble energy savings - a reduction in the related carbon dioxide emissions adds to the benefits.

The range of savings of chemicals is between 10 and 70 percent, the average being about 30 percent. “The overall savings can typically be from half million to one million euro per production line. On the scale of mills, the savings are naturally higher.”

“We could also use the term net efficiency of pro-duction. The customer will receive easily-measured benefits. The net efficiency figure improvement can even reach 3.5 %, which is a high figure.”

Jouni Matula explains that the cumulative sav-ings from all the TrumpJet projects are estimated at 55 million cubic meters of water per year, 2.5 million MWh and 1.8 million tons in the reduction of carbon dioxide.”

“To compare, the 55 million m3 of fresh water that is saved is more than 12 hours of flow down the Nia-gara falls. The 2.5 million MWh corresponds to 1.2 million barrels of oil.”

We have developed our products in a way that they are very easy and quick to install on a running paper machine with a short maintenance shut down."

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Wetend



More than 350 TrumpJet mixing installations

TrumpJet technology has rapidly won new customers.

“We have had about 350 TrumpJet Flash Mixing stations installed. We su-pervise the projects from the beginning to the start – and we also carry out the maintenance and services guidelines. Our technology can be found in paper and board mills in 23 countries.”

“We have developed our products in a

way that they are very easy and quick to install on a running paper machine with a short maintenance shut down. We pro-vide tools to make the installation pro-cess easier,” says Jouni Matula.

With TrumpJets, chemicals are mixed with pulp immediately.

This makes it possible to mix the wet end additives very close to the head-box, even more than one chemical at a time. Pioneering innovation is that circulated head-box feed stock is used as an injec-tion liquid. This eliminates the need of

fresh water for chemical dosages. There is no need to heat up the elimi-

nated water to the process temperature. This results in savings in energy levels and the reduction of CO2 emissions.

In most of the industrialized coun-tries, water and energy saving are the major objectives for sustainability. Thus, it is a key motive to buy our technology, in addition to savings in additives.”

JussiMatulaissupervisingatestrunatWetend'spilotplant.



Technology prizes

Many world record paper machines ex-ploit TrumpJet technology.

“China is an important market for us. It is one of the few markets in which the paper and board sectors are expanding. Packaging board and tissue markets are also generally growing worldwide.”

In 2008, Wetend Technologies Ltd received the technology prize Golden Bridge Award from the Republic of China state committee (Ministry of Science and Technology) – the first time ever that this prize has been granted to a foreign com-pany. Already five years earlier in 2003, Wetend received the Innofinland prize (the most innovative companies in Fin-land) from the President of Finland.

Jouni Matula states that Wetend is aware of their competitors:

“There have been copies, but those have been closer to conventional tech-nology. We have protected our technol-ogy though the use of several patents and we maintain our distance to the followers with constant investments placed in re-search and the development of new prod-ucts and applications.

Like a good ice-hockey team

Jouni Matula, M.Sc, Engineering, has more than 35 years of experience in engineering in pulp and paper. He has more than 100 international patents and has published a vast amount of papers and research results.

“We use 10-13 % of our turnover in

TrumpJetchemicalmixinginstallationonmachinelevel.

We play to win. I believe that we have good motivational tools: openness, working together, an active innovative environment, discussions and sharing make the Wetend business a success."



In-LinePCC™isanewfiber-loadedfillermaterialthatwillbeproducedbyamillitselfdirectlyintotheproductionprocessofpaper.InproductionofIn-LinePCC™,calciumcarbonatecrystalsareloadedstronglyonsurfacesoffiberandfibrilsandfinesofferingmajoradvantages.

TrumpJetPocoinstallationintheworldbiggestcoated

finepaperlineinChina We have a skilful team that could be compared to a good ice-hockey team. Our Wetend team has a wide scope of know-how."



R & D. We also hold constant discussions with our key customers on how to im-prove our operations. Good motivation of the Wetend personnel is of utmost im-portance.” Jouni Matula emphasizes that everything depends on good and close team work.

“We have a skilful team that could be compared to a good ice-hockey team. Our Wetend team has a wide scope of know-how. We are hungry, we have expe-rienced experts and we have young pro-fessional people who all want to make a score, to get results.”

“We play to win. I believe that we have good motivational tools: openness, work-ing together, an active innovative envi-ronment, discussions and sharing make the Wetend business a success. Naturally, there are also challenges such as find-ing a qualified workforce to support the growth.”

“Agility is a term that describes our ap-proach very well. We are small enough to be truly flexible, but large enough to carry out demanding projects.”

“Our boss is our stock of orders.”Without the innovative approach of

Jouni Matula and the Wetend team, the success would not be what it is today. He does not deny the role played by innova-tion and creativity:

Jouni Matula tells that his original idea and pioneer invention was quickly developed together with a Finnish Paper and Board manufacturer into a successful working concept. At the present time, the TrumpJet product family includes Forte, Poco, Chord and Trombone. TrumpJet Chord, for example, is for multi-chemical use and TrumpJet Poco is for minor flows.

The story of Wetend is also a good ex-ample of the strength of the SME’s abil-ity to find a niche where they are quicker and stronger than larger companies. The company was set up in 2001 as MBO. The owners are Pekka Kotila and Jouni Matu-la - in addition, Jouni’s son, Jussi Matula, is also successfully sharing key operations and management tasks of Wetend.

www.wetend.com

IN-LINE PCC Additives and chemicals play an important role in the modern manufacture of paper and board. A mineral component, as a filler additive, represents the highest consumption among additives in several printing paper grades. A typical filler e.g. for copy paper is PCC (PCC stands for Precipitated Calcium Carbonate—also known as purified, refined or synthetic cal-cium carbonate.)

Many paper mills produce PCC in a separate satellite pro-duction unit at a mill site.

The newest development of Wetend Technologies Ltd is the In-Line PCC concept.

“It is a new filler fibre composite that will be produced di-rectly at a paper mill into the production process of paper. As the term suggests, the production of In-line PCC will be made inside the paper making process – in-line.”

PCC crystals are strongly fixed on the surfaces of fibres and fibrils. This forms a composite structure. The In-Line PCC com-posite develops a sheet structure positively.

“Costs are cut and paper properties are improved. For ex-ample, the in-line solution provides excellent retention, good web properties, good light scattering, as well as opacity and brightness.”

“With our solution, the complete process to produce calci-um carbonate is also simple. The first In-Line PCC processes have already been commercialized.”

WetendwasawardedwithGoldenBridgetechnologyawardin2008.InthepicturePekkaKotila(left),ZhangMinandJouniMatula.


New Steps in

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: GL&V

Atrex is one small but increasingly important part of GL & V business, which offers through its Megatrex connection the ATREX Reject Recovery System. GL & V also provides other solutions to improve productivity and paper quality.

Reject Technology

With the Atrex system most of the valuable minerals and fi bers can be recovered and

reused in the process. “Th e system is a highly effi cient, fl exible and compact pro-cess to treat the reject fl ows from paper and board machines. Even more than 90 percent of the reject stream can be recov-ered back to process,” says GL & V Sales Director of Asia & Europe, Mr. Markku Pitkänen.

Th e cleaner reject consists of valuable raw materials that can be used in the pro-cess after treating them with Atrex.

Especially the paper and board mills producing coated grades have a lot of

coating fl akes in their current reject streams. Th e heavier the coating, the more diffi cult is the defl aking with the existing machinery.

“Double coated grades and coated board are good examples. With Atrex the target is to reach the original particle size distribution of coating pigments and fi ll-ers,” says Pitkänen.

Th e fi ber knots are disintegrated and shives grinded. Savings are thus gener-ated also by using less fi ber.

“When there is less reject, transporta-tion costs to landfi ll place and charges for landfi ll are lower. Typically all these con-siderations lead to a payback time of 6 to 12 months.”

Th e payback time can be even less, if the value of the recycled raw materials and the transportation and landfi ll charg-es decreases are taken into account.

“What’s more, the process is environ-mentally sound. Th e process not only re-duces the amount of wastes, it turns them into valuable raw materials.”

Th e reject fl ow from the fi nal stage of approach fl ow centrifugal cleaners, paper machine screen rejects and coating color effl uents is treated. When consistency can be increased, there is less pumping, which means energy savings.

“Th e fi rst Atrex units were installed and started in 1999, so Atrex is an already proven technology.”


More than 50 installations

Th e diff erence compared to traditional technologies is clear.

“Th e Atrex technology is in use in many countries, for example, in Finland, Sweden and Germany. Th ere are more than 50 Atrex installations worldwide. In developing countries it is also gradually gaining interest, but there are still few in-stallations,” says Pitkänen.

“Th e Atrex technology generates less emissions and waste, so it will certainly be taken into use in paper mills in much more countries.”

Atrex G-series

“Naturally the wide usage of reject-rich slurry does not fi t all paper and board grades. But it is excellent on multi-layer cartons, and in tapestry grades

“However, rejects can also be gath-ered in one or several places and used in another paper or board machine. Atrex suites well larger mills with several paper or board machines. In this way transpor-tation to another machine costs are low,” says Markku Pitkänen.

“When products are coated, there needs to have an effi cient broke circula-

tion, where the coating particles return to the short circulation.”

Th e Atrex technology has reached a new level with its G-series of equipment, which gives more energy savings.

“Atrex G-series provides a highly ef-fi cient process to treat reject fl ows from the paper and board machines. With it, the most valuable minerals and fi bers can be recovered and reused in the process.

“We can off er trial runs at the cus-tomer’s mill with the transportable pilot unit. Furthermore, our reference list is quite long.”



Varied technologies

GL & V also provides dependable products to improve productivity and paper quality.

“One leading technology is the BTF™ automatic dilution system for paper ma-chine headboxes. It is the most effi cient technology on the market for improving sheet uniformity and operational fl ex-ibility.

“Many of our products are industry standards, such as Compact Press®, DU-FLO® pumps, DUALOX® mixers, Super-Batch® cooking process, Celleco™ pulp

cleaners and disc fi lters, Beloit screening, washing and refi ning technologies and IMPCO™ oxygen delignifi cation systems,” lists Markku Pitkänen.

“Among our innovative new products, the new DD®6000 refi ner can improve fi ber quality while reducing energy con-sumption and maintenance costs.”

To give one example of GL & V exper-tise, Pitkänen refers to the company’s disc fi lter competence.

“Disc fi lters used to be sensitive to fail-ures. With GL & V technology one can reach much better and enduring solu-

tions. For example, a single solution by GL & V can deliver three water qualities, cloudy, clear and super clear fi ltrates, as was done in disc fi lter rebuilt at the Mit-subishi HiTec Paper in Bielefeld, Ger-many.”

With some other modifi cations, there was an increase in the machine speed and capacity.

GL & V also knows how to deal with stock preparation. “Not long ago we ac-quired Finnish-based TamPulping, which off ers products and services for stock preparation processes.”




GL & V in a nutshell

GL & V Pulp and Paper is a division of the Canadian-based company GLV Inc., a global enterprise not only in pulp and pa-per but also in production and treatment of fresh, process and waste waters.

GL & V Inc. is a leading global provid-er of technological solutions used in wa-ter treatment as well as in pulp and paper production. Th e corporation operates in some 30 countries and has approximately 2,300 employees.

Th e Pulp and Paper Group designs


and globally markets equipment used in various stages of paper production, from pulp preparation to sheet formation and fi nishing. It also serves the global market with rebuilding, upgrading and optimiza-tion services for existing equipment, as well as the sale of replacement parts. It ensures that its portfolio consists of in-novative products and technologies that bring added value to the customer, such as lower energy consumption. GL & V has Pulp and Paper around 1000 employ-ees, of which 400 work in Europe. Some of the Pulp and Paper Group’s proprie-

tary technologies are primarily protected by patents.

Th e Water Treatment Group (Ovivo) of GL & V designs and markets treatment and recycling solutions and components for municipal and industrial wastewater as well as water used in various industrial processes.

www.glv.com


INSALKO- Technical Trading for 60 Years

Based in Helsinki, Finland, Oy Insalko Ab operates in four fields of technolo-gy: communication, food, processing, and paper and pulp. The company em-

ploys ten people, three of whom work in the pa-per and pulp department. As it is, paper and pulp is an important part of the company. “Our total sales volume varies annually according to the amount of large-scale projects, but traditionally the share of the paper industry has been about half of our volume,” says Mika Puhakainen, the Product Manager of the company’s Paper and Pulp as well as Food and Bioenergy departments. “The greatest sales volumes are found in machine renovations, machine components as well as var-ious raw materials and chemicals.”

As a result of their transactions, Insalko has significant contacts in the Finnish paper industry. “Our department’s biggest customers are Metso, UPM, Stora Enso and M-Real. We have numer-ous subcontractors, all of whom have their own areas of specialisation,” says Mr. Puhakainen.

The company operates primarily in the do-mestic Finnish market, with the notable excep-tion of the paper industry department. “About half of our paper industry products are exported via machine manufacturers, while only a small part of the products in our other departments are sold abroad,” Mr. Puhakainen explains.


Text: Michael NaglerPhotos: Insalko, Dreamstime

Originally founded in 1952 to serve the then significant shipyard industry, Insalko moved into the paper industry in the 1980s. With decades of experi-ence, Insalko offers a diverse range of high quality products including com-ponents, machinery, radio equipment and technical specialty products.

MikaPuhakainen,theProductManager



Offering a wide range of service

Insalko takes its business very seriously, and ser-vice does not stop at the purchase of a product. The company’s long-standing contacts with do-mestic subcontractors enable them to offer eco-nomical and individual solutions to their custom-ers. “We serve Finnish industry professionally and in the long-term with high-quality products and reliable subcontractors. We offer full service with our products: design, basic repairs, maintenance, training, problem solving and upkeep. We support our customers throughout the product’s entire lifespan, from the beginning to the end. Our busi-ness practice is based on strong trust between the customers and us, so that together with our cus-tomers we can develop their processes as well as our products. The end result is a win-win situation for everyone involved,” says Mr. Puhakainen.

As it is, the average lifespan of Insalko’s prod-ucts is long, and the machines do not break down easily. Therefore there is no great appetite among customers to change and modify them after pur-chase. “People are willing to leave reliable prod-ucts alone in order to secure the supply of spare parts. The machines’ lifespan can be as high as 10-20 years. Some of the biggest machines and devices are tailor-made for their respective pro-jects. Therefore their lifespan is as long as the specific project requires them to be,” explains Mr. Puhakainen.

Environmental consciousness is also central to Insalko’s mode of operation. There is a concerted effort within the paper and pulp industry to make the production methods more environmentally sound, and Insalko is a part of this process. “The paper and pulp industry seeks to make the pro-duction process environmentally friendly. Our company, with our know-how and representing the products of our subcontractors, is strongly in-volved in implementing these aims. Examples of this include closed-circuit water systems, collec-tion of waste fibres, purification and utilisation of waste water, decreasing the amount of waste soil, saving energy during the formation of pulp and paper web, as well as optimising the waste decom-position process and utilising the resulting biogas. Responsibility is the basis of our business and we naturally follow environmental legislation. As a small company we are a member of the Environ-mental Register of Packaging PYR Ltd,” says Mr. Puhakainen.



Advantages and goals

As a company that handles a lot of business involving paper and pulp, it is to be expected that Insalko is affected by changes in the pa-per industry, whether for good or ill. Accord-ing to Mr. Puhakainen, the present situation is good. “Sales were excellent last year. At the beginning of this year they have been slower, perhaps because of all the talk about a reces-sion at the end of last year. However, we ex-pect that sales will spike upwards towards the end of the year.”

According to Mr. Puhakainen, Insalko has two vital advantages over its competitors. One is experience. “All of our people have extensive experience, both in their respec-tive sales fields as well as the devices that are sold,” he says. Another advantage lies in extensive documentation. “The importer has to provide additional value to the sale of de-vices. Our task is to bring the manufacturer and the customer together. After that it is In-salko’s job to handle everything related to the matter throughout the product’s entire lifes-pan. In order to rapidly respond to problem situations and customers’ spare part needs, we preserve all documentation related to the shipments.”

Insalko has stated that it wishes to be the leading supplier of its sector by 2015. Mr. Puhakainen is confident that this goal will be met. “The future of the paper and pulp industry is based on the fact that it can use raw materials here in Finland in an economi-cally efficient manner. Finnish forest growth is many times greater than what the forest industry uses at the moment. We know that the Finnish cardboard industry will increase their production of cardboard packaging for foodstuffs specifically because of the use of virgin fibres. In addition to this, we believe that the forest industry will take this even further, producing ecologically friendly ener-gy which will fulfil our environmental needs by 2020. Insalko is strongly involved in this, and with our know-how we will fulfil our goal by being the leading supplier with regards to the product groups that we represent.”

www.insalko.fi



HPAC DesignAX Consulting Ltd has gathered a wide variety of

special know-how in technical design under one roof.

Text: Kalle HeinoPhotos: AX Consulting Ltd, Dreamstime

Permanent Solutions in

When looking for a holistic approach for technical design and consult-ing, AX Consulting Ltd is a place where experienced and specialized know-how meet.

AX Consulting consists of three independent companies, which co-operate closely together. The know-how of these three companies covers HPAC (heating, piping and air-conditioning), electronic systems, building automation sys-tems, district heating and boiler houses, energy consulting, process and layout engi-neering, environmental technology and measurements.

”We don’t want to carry out bulk design. Everything that we do is customized, and we only block houses when we really have to. They are not cost effective projects for us,” says Seppo Heinänen, the director of the environmental technology department.

AX Consulting mainly works for industrial design, as well as for spas, schools, con-cert halls, ice-skating rinks, schools, shopping centres, multi-storey car parks and un-derground spaces.



The projects are mainly in Finland – if they are abroad, it’s usually a Finnish company with a place of business abroad.

Besides everything else, one field of the special services of AX Consulting is emission measurements. AX Consulting consults the companies with emission questions and environment permits. The company has carried out several meas-urements for large Finnish forest compa-nies operating in Chile, Indonesia, Spain and Italy.

”The general problem is that many industrial companies try to only lower their emission levels temporarily to get a specific permit. Our goal is to reduce the

AXConsultingLtdhasworkedwithMetsoPower,designingair-conditioningforpowerboilersallovertheworld.

Emissionmeasurements.



levels permanently,” Heinänen tells.As one field of specialization, the en-

vironmental technology department also carries out design and consulting with occupational hygiene – meaning noise, gases, dusts, thermal comfort and air and water emissions.

One actual question is the new EU emission control directive for industry.

”It will change many things, since the companies have to update their environ-ment permits.”

The same effect has taken place with VOC emissions levels (Volatile Organic Compound) that had a transition time from 2007 to 2009. AX Consulting has been working with 20 VOC projects, mainly incineration plants, in lowering the emission levels.

SeppoHeinänencarryingoutemissionmeasurements.



Restoration projects are challengingAXConsultingLtddoesn’tonlyworkwithnewbuildings.It’sknow-howalsosuitsalsorestorationprojects.

Lately,AXConsultingLtdhasbeeninvolvedintherestorationoftheKulttuuritalo,a50-year-oldconcerthouseinHelsinki.Thehouseisprotectedandlistedasaheritagesite.

”Thesekindsofprojectsarealwayschallenging.WithHPAC,youhavetorebuildeverythingthatisbehindthewalls,butitmustallstayhidden.It’sdifficult,”SeppoHeinänenfromAXConsulting’senvironmentaltechnologydepartmenttells.

Inthesekindsofprojects,AXConsultingreliesontheirexperience.

”ThereisnootherofficeinFinlandwiththiskindofknow-how.”

”The future looks good for us,” Heinänen says.

AX Consulting Ltd works closely with institutions, such as the Technical Re-search Center of Finland and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.

The revenue is 4.5 million euros and the company has 85 employees.

The company invests in long customer relations. The secret is to make every-thing perfect at the first point.

”Our services might be expensive, but our aim is that we won’t need to re-peat the work that we’ve already done once. We have many customers that have worked with us for many years, and only a few customers have ever left us.”

ThisLTOforaprintingpressmachinehaspaiditspricebackmanytimesovernineyears.90percentoftheexhaustaircanevenbeusedtoheattheinhaledair.

AXConsultingLtdworkingattheVOCincinerationplant.

ArestorationprojectattheKulttuuritaloconcerthouse,Helsinki.



phone: +35832680111

fax: +35832110106

email: [email protected],[email protected]

website:www.ax.fi

postaladdress: P.O.Box428

33101Tampere

Finland

visitingaddress:Kuokkamaantie4A

Nekala,Tampere

AX Consulting


A part of the international testing and inspection company DEKRA, DEKRA Industrial Oy is an independent authorised inspection company that offers both testing and conformity assessment to its clients.

Text: Michael NaglerPhotos: Dekra

DEKRA Industrial Oy– Improving Reliability and Safety


DEKRA Industrial Oy's story began in 1974, when it was formed under the name of Polartest Oy. On 31.12.2008

it became part of DEKRA, one of the world's largest testing and inspection companies. As DEKRA operates in five continents, this arrangement also gave DEKRA Industrial access to a huge or-ganisation.

Employing 200 people, DEKRA In-dustrial is heavily geared toward inspec-tion services, according to CEO Matti Andersson. Its goal is to improve the safety, operational reliability, environ-

mental sustainability and productivity of its clients' equipment and structures. The company's services include in-ser-vice inspections of pressure equipment, conformity assessment, inspections of electrical installations, smoke detectors and extinguishing systems, as well as non-destructive testing (NDT) and de-structive testing (DT) services. DEKRA Industrial's services also include assess-ment and surveillance of the condition of structures and equipment. The assess-ments of safety-related systems (SRS) in technical processes are also included in their field of expertise.

DEKRA Industrial serves its clients in the process, chemical and energy pro-duction industries as well as construc-tion works. There is great demand for DEKRA Industrial's services, and no particular service is discriminated for or against. “There is great demand for all of our services equally,” says Mr. Andersson. Though the company has good foreign connections, most of DEKRA Industrial's business is still geared toward the domes-tic market. “Seven per cent of our reve-nue comes from foreign markets and the rest comes from Finland,” Mr. Andersson explains.

We are a worldwide organisation, part of the world's third biggest inspection company."

MattiAndersson,CEOofDEKRAIndustrialOy



DEKRA Industrial serves its clients in the process, chemical and energy production industries as well as construction works."



Organisation and expertise

DEKRA Industrial has good credentials for its busi-ness. It is a Notified Body (0875) for Conformity Assessment in accordance with the European Pres-sure Equipment Directive (PED) and the Directive for Transportable Pressure Equipment (TPED). The Finnish Nuclear Authority (STUK) has also ap-proved DEKRA Industrial to perform the inspection of mechanical equipment and NDT in nuclear facili-ties.

In order to run the myriad of testing and assess-ments, a good organisation is required. According to Mr. Andersson, this is one big reason for DEKRA In-dustrial's success. “We are a worldwide organisation, part of the world's third biggest inspection company. Therefore we have access to a large and capable pool of manpower. Our geographical location is also an advantage. Of course, here in Finland we have very capable and professional personnel,” Mr. Andersson emphasises.

DEKRA Industrial aims to have the latest know-how and technology in the sector, as well as the most modern standards, including harmonised EN stand-ards. Matti Andersson is optimistic about meeting these aims. “We have participated in the work groups of many different sectors, both as students as well as presenters. This way we get good experience, which can then be properly utilised,” he says.

www.dekra.fi


Where There’s Water, There’s

Text: Liisa LeevePhotos: Kaiko

Kaiko

Kaiko provides both large and small solutions for water treatment, filtration and measuring.


Where There’s Water, There’s Kaiko is active in four main business areas: water works, building services, industrial applications and health care. The scales of Kaiko’s deliveries range from components to full turnkey projects."

Text: Liisa LeevePhotos: Kaiko

Water. We all need it to survive and most in-dustries need it in their production processes.

– Water is in the core of our business. Whether it is filtering, measuring or recy-cling, says Arto Kalvas, CEO of Kaiko Ltd.

Kaiko is active in four main business areas: water works, building services, in-dustrial applications and health care. The scales of Kaiko’s deliveries range from components to full turnkey projects.

The company’s products include, for example, water consumption measuring devices for households, as well as dialysis water purification systems for health care companies. In total, Kaiko has over 5 000 products in its catalogue.

Tailored solutions

Arto Kalvas states, that there really isn’t another company out there with exactly the same service concept, although they do have competitors in specific products.

– Quality and long-term client rela-tionships are very important to us. In-stead of going after one-off deals, we see even smaller transactions as openings for meaningful relationships.

As a testament to the longevity of Kai-ko’s client relationship, Kalvas mentions John Crane Safematic. They have been subcontracting water treatment compo-nents from Kaiko for over 25 years now.

Kaiko can deliver its products and services for practically any type of in-

ArtoKalvas,CEOofKaikoLtd.



dustry that uses water in its production line. This includes filters, dosing devices, measuring devices and cooling towers.

The key is tailoring standardised prod-ucts to suit the needs of the client. Kaiko’s clients include major companies in the pulp and paper industry, both in Finland, as well as other countries.

– We can assemble products, ac-cording to the client’s specifications. For example, materials, pressures and ap-plications can be altered for any specific needs, Kalvas says.

Co-operation in start-up

Pulp and paper mills mainly use Kaiko’s products in water filtration operations. Filtration processes are very varied and can be mechanical or chemical.

Other applications are in-flow meas-urements and dosing. Flow volumes can be measured mechanically, magnetically or with ultra-sound.



Arto Kalvas says that larger-scale pro-jects often include a service and mainte-nance contract and an integral part of the delivery is the start-up in co-operation with the client.

– If the clients are left to fend with the new system for themselves, it’s not going to lead to a good outcome. It’s important that the system is used properly, so that the end result matches the agreed upon specifications.

Relationships are key

The history of the company dates back to the 1940’s. Arto Kalvas smiles and says that they must have done something right to have been in business for so long.

Kalvas has been CEO since 1997 and is today a majority shareholder in the com-pany. He says part of the secret to Kaiko’s success has been their long-standing rela-tionships with suppliers, as well as clients.

– We prefer not to ask for bids sepa-

rately every time that we need a com-ponent. When we build up relationships with our suppliers, we can trust them to solve any possible problems that may come up.

The key to creating long-standing re-lationships on the client’s side is trust and offering more value for money.

– To define the clients’ expectations in terms of the overall result of the project is, I think, very important. The ultimate goal may be to reduce production costs, for example, Kalvas says.

Opportunities and challenges

When asked about the challenges facing them in the coming years, Arto Kalvas mentions human resources. So far, they have been lucky and have, according to Kalvas, a very good team of people at Kaiko.

– Good, capable staff is a nowadays a diminishing resource for many Finnish companies. We need to keep the com-

When we build up relationships with our suppliers, we can trust them to solve any possible problems that may come up."

pany interesting, to attract the right kind of experts to further our ideas.

Kalvas states, that a very interesting development among industrial clients, is the aim to conserve and recycle water. More and more companies are realising the need to save this precious resource.

– This does not mean that our busi-ness would diminish as a result. Higher-quality water is in high demand and it’s an opportunity for us to be involved in the development process.

Another opportunity for Kaiko is spe-cialized water treatment needs, Kalvas says. It’s a field where even a smaller sized company can offer valuable know-how.

– It’s a continuing goal for us to in-crease the know-how within our com-pany and to offer it to our clients

www.kaiko.fi


CONNECTING WITH QUALITYKlinger-Ramikro Oy is an importer, manufacturer and wholesaler of industrial seals and gaskets. “In addition to seals, Klinger-Ramikro’s product range includes high quality CE approved hoists and welding protection fabric,” explains Raimo Myllymäki, Managing Director of Klinger-Ramikro. Text: Finland of Networks

Photos: Klinger-Ramikro

Klinger-Ramikro’s largest cus-tomers operate within the chemical and petrochemical industries, in wood process-

ing, energy generation and engineering. One of the biggest product groups are O-rings and O-ring cords. The simple shape and ease of installation of O-rings make it an economical and widely suited seal solution.

Back-up rings effectively prevent O-rings from squeezing into the groove, when the O-rings are operating under pressure. Back-up seals are usually made from vari-ous types of plastic and elastomers.

The product range also includes radial shaft seals like V-seals (NBR and FPW), as well as hydraulic seals, such as piston and rod seals and wipers, guide rings and guide rings. Hoists include cable and chain hoists.

“Besides seals and hoisting equip-

ment, we also supply fibreglass and oth-er protective fabrics for fire work,” says Raimo Myllymäki.

“All in all, we have approximately 15 000 individual items from different manufacturers and more than 2 500 shelf metres. Our stock guarantees good avail-ability and prompt deliveries to our cus-tomers around the world.”

“About 2/3 of our turnover comes from trading products and 1/3 from the cutting unit. We use CAD technology for gasket cutting operations.”

Since 2003, there has been strong de-velopment in the cutting service by new

computer-controlled cutting ma-chines. All in all, Klinger Ramikro has three CAD-programmed machines. The cutting service is fast and flexible.

“We have a wide range of materials - in addition to Klinger’s own material, we can cut other materials that are avail-

able on the market to suit our customer’s specifications,” says Myllymäki.

Customers

Klinger-Ramikro Oy is active in its mar-keting and export efforts:

“Foreign trade accounts for a signifi-cant share of our turnover. Our most im-portant export markets are the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries, Russia, North America and China,” says Raimo Myllymäki.

“Russia is a relatively large market for us. It is important to be able to offer tech-nical support in Russia.”

“Of our individual customers, our largest customer is the paper machine manufacturer Metso Paper. They have maintenance and service centres in Chi-na, the United States and several other countries. In China, Metso has as many


Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Klinger-Ramikro

All in all, we have approximately 15 000 individual items from different manufacturers and more than 2 500 shelf metres."



as five maintenance centres. They also have an automation product factory there.”

Sweden is important for Metso, it has a manufacturing unit in Karlstad. Klinger Sweden AB is a trading company in Sweden.

“Our stock around the world guaran-tees good availability and prompt deliver-ies to our customers.”

Much of Klinger-Ramikro’s turnover comes from their customers buying seals and gaskets for their service and mainte-

nance business, but projects are also im-portant.

“Wherever a new production plant is built, wherever seals and gadgets are re-quired, we aim to be there.”

Specialized needs

In 1994, Ramikro joined the international Klinger group, and the latter is one of Ra-mikro’s owners. Raimo Myllymäki is still the minority owner. He has 38 years of

experience concerning seals and gaskets. “The business has changed quite much

during these years, but gaskets and seals are still synthetic oil-based solutions, not natural fibres. There are substantial dif-ferences between materials, even though they might look and feel the same. In many cases, however, different colours are used to indicate the type of the seal or the gasket.”

“In many cases, seals and gadgets are quite specialized. One needs to know at what temperature the product is used, what is the humidity and pressure, what are the medias.”

Raimo Myllymäki reminds us that is of no use attempting to make savings by buying products which are possibly not original ones. Or to try to generate sav-ings by changing seals or gaskets too late.

“If an O-ring, for example, is broken, it can be critical, if oil, for example, goes to paper line. Maintenance is often car-ried out at regular intervals, so the cus-

Wherever a new production plant is built, wherever seals and gadgets are required, we aim to be there.”



tomer knows when seals and gadgets are needed. There are also urgent situations, where a leaking valve, for example, can cause a great deal of damage.”

Larger maintenance is carried out during shut-downs, which are nowadays short. It can cost thousands of euros per minute, if the paper or pulp machinery is not in use.

Klinger-Ramikro also delivers seals and gadgets for emerging industries. For example, such seals that are required in wind power turbines and drives. The lat-ter alone can weigh up to 30 tons and be the size of a lorry.

The Klinger group

The Klinger Finland group comprises the parent company, Klinger Finland Oy, and the subsidiaries, Aseko Oy, Klinger-Ramikro Oy and Meckelborg Oy. In 1998, Ramikro bought the Klinger sheet mate-rial business and started their own cut-ting operation.

In 1999, the name changed to Klinger-Ramikro. In 2001, Klinger-Ramikro ac-quired hoist and hydraulic jack business started. Tiivistevalmiste Oy was joined to Klinger-Ramikro by an acquisition in 2002.

Another Klinger group company, Aseko, is a strong player in valves, au-tomation components and surveillance camera equipment from leading manu-facturers. The third company, Meckel-borg, is a specialist in comprehensive product marking and coding solutions.

All in all, Klinger companies in Fin-land employ around 130 people and the combined turnover is nearly 40 million euros. The operations centre is in Masala, in Kirkkonummi, little more than 20 km from the capital city, Helsinki.

The international Klinger group is a network of independent companies. All in all, the group employs 1 400 people around the world and its total turnover is approximately 400 million euros.

Examples of Klinger-Ramikro products:

Hydraulic seals are seals that are manufactured from various elastomer and plastic materials, or combinations of these, for vari-ous applications and pressures. These include single and double acting piston seals, rod seals, wipers, guide rings, O-rings and bonded seals.

Shaft seals are seals that are constructed mainly from metal inserts and a vulcanized seal element. They are used, for exam-ple, to provide a seal between a rotating shaft and static hous-ing. L2M shaft seals are seals for heavy duty seals for paper ma-chine bending compensation rolls and transmission. The standard model is L2M. Other models developed from these are suitable for higher speeds and temperatures.

V-seals are rubber seals for rotary shafts. These offer a perfect solution to prevent the ingress of dirt, dust and water. It can be

used as a secondary seal to protect primary seals. www.ramikro.fi


Consisting of four independent companies, the Kopar Group operates in both Finland and abroad, serving a large number of different industries. A new Technology Centre is an example of the corporation's aim of unifying and optimising its operations.

Text: Michael NaglerPhotos: Kopar Group

– Experience and ReliabilityKopar Group



The origins of the Kopar Group date back to 1989, when Kopar Oy was founded by a group of Rauma-Repola em-ployees in a Management Buy Out deal. Since that time, the company has grown, and has been joined by Elmomet Oy,

Site Teollisuus Oy and Kopar Baltik AS. Together, the four companies form the Kopar Group, an engineering and manufacturing corporation with long experience in the handling of bulk material, particularly in non-ferrous smelter industries, as well as in power and energy sectors. The corporation currently employs 120 people.

”Our company is specialised in providing material handling solutions in demanding conditions,” says Yrjö Norri, the head of Sales and Market-ing for the Kopar Group ”Our largest customer segments are the energy and metallurgy industries, for whom we provide ash handling systems and smelter material handling systems, respectively. We also serve many other industries.” These additional customer segments include cement and chemical industries, as well as pulp and paper and food industries. The proportion of foreign and domestic orders varies annually. However, according to Mr. Norri, most of Kopar's products are exported to foreign facilities.

Our company is specialised in providing material handling solutions in demanding conditions."

uThesolutionsandequipmentwedeliveraredesignedinFinlandin

ourowntechnologycenter.Machin-eryandotheritemsaremanufac-turedinourproductionplantsin

FinlandandEstonia.

tNewinnovationfornon-ferroussmelterindustryisthesteamdryerthatutilizesthesteamgeneratedelsewhereinthesmelterprocessfordryingofconcentratesthusloweringtheexhaustgasamountsthattradi-tionallyhavebeenhighwhendryingwithfossilfuels.



Research and development

As a company that deals in intricate machinery for numerous industries, it is natural for the Kopar Group to invest in research and development in order to assist their customers, improve their products and keep themselves updated on the latest technologies and hardware. One example of this is the Kopar Group's new Technology Centre in Kuortane. ”It is better to concentrate our capabilities and expertise in one place rather than have it diffused over several locations. By operating this way, our work will be-come easier, we will come up with better solutions, and we will be able to serve our customers better,” Mr. Norri explains.

The Kopar Group is actively develop-ing and utilizing technical innovations. One example of this are the PDMS (Plant Design Management System), modules that are used in product management. Many other projects are also in the pipe-line. ”Currently, one of our larger projects in product development involves a new kind of steam dryer. We are also work-ing on new devices that are related to the

cooling and drying solutions of materials,” says Mr. Norri. ”All in all, we have several ongoing projects. These projects involve the improvement of existing technology. We also develop new technology to some extent, through project developments.”

The Kopar Group is also very envi-ronmentally conscious in its work. ”Our quality management systems play their part in promoting sustainable develop-ment. In fact, our technologies are also environmental technologies. Our ash

handling systems for power plants are a good example of this,” says Mr. Norri. In addition to the handling of ash, Kopar has a vast array of other solutions, including raw-water intake and filtration equip-ment, as well as equipment for storage, screening, dosing and dust removal.

Upcoming projects

The Kopar Group will not be idle in the near future. In October 2011, the company

qSiloforstarch,deliveredtoapapermillinEnglandinApril2012.

pWorld’slargestbiopowerplanttrustinKopar’sElmomettechnologyinhandlingandmovingofflyash.

uRotaryDryersaresuitableforcontinu-ousdryingofpowderedmineralsinmining,crushing,concentratingandflashsmeltingplants.



received a major order for a handling sys-tem for granulated nickel slag. The order was placed by Boliden, the Swedish metal conglomerate, for their smelting operation in Harjavalta, Finland. This is familiar ter-ritory for Kopar, as the company delivered a converter to the Harjavalta plant's cop-per smelting line in 2007. The installation will take place in May 2012.

In November 2011, Kopar received a large order for a clinker handling system for a new power unit owned by Ekokem. Lo-cated in Riihimäki, Finland, Ekokem is the country's largest waste management com-pany. The new power unit includes a power plant and a related turbine. It is intended to be completed by the end of 2012.

The Kopar Group has also received a significant order to supply bottom ash handling equipment to a new power plant in Narva, Estonia. The client is the inter-national group Alstom, the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor. This order constitutes Kopar's largest order for a bottom ash handling system for thermal energy plants.

As things stand, it looks like Kopar will not be running out of orders anytime soon. ”Both the energy and metallurgy industries are very active right now. Such high activity means lots of orders and lots of work for us,” Mr. Norri says.

www.kopar.fi

Our quality management systems play their part in promoting sustainable development."


Metsähallitus is a state enterprise that administers more than 12 million hectares of state-owned land and water areas.

“We have the challenging responsibility of managing and using these areas in a way that benefits Finnish society to the greatest possible extent,” says General Director Jyrki Kangas.

JyrkiKangas,GeneralDirector


MetsähallitusVersatile Forest Management

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Metsähallitus, Dreamstime

The sale of wood from managed forests ac-counts for more than 80 percent of the turn-over of Metsähallitus. The largest customers are forest industry companies who are oper-

ating in Finland, with whom Metsähallitus has relation-ships that are based on long-term contracts. Saw mills around the country are also important customers.

“Our forestry unit, as well as all the other operative business units and daughter companies, are profitable. Our commercial forest management also combines ecological, economic and social sustainability.”

In addition to providing wood in a profitable way, forests can also be used for outdoor activities and berry and mushroom picking. People are entitled to move about freely in commercial forests.

“We will also have to take into account recreation, mainly nature tourism, and reindeer herding in North-ern Finland,” says Kangas.

The economic income of Metsähallitus in 2011 was al-most 104 million euros. Both the turnover and the profit increased by 1.5 million euros, when compared with 2010.

“We are quite satisfied with these figures. A great deal of our forests are fast-growing, which binds CO2.

We listen to the requirements of power companies and deliver exactly the right amount and type of wood energy that they need.”



We mainly do thinning at the moment due to the age structure of the forests.”

“The renewal of the forests will in-crease in the future. I believe we could in-crease the utilization of our forests in an even way, possibly 100 000 m3 more each year. This would mean that in 20 years, we could cut down eight million cubic meters of timber. Even now, we could cut 7.5 million m3 in a sustainable way, but last year, we only cut 5.8 million cubic meters. This was 0.3 million cubic meters less than in 2010.

Jyrki Kangas notes that forestry man-aged to post excellent results despite weakened market prospects and a sub-stantial increase in transportation costs during the last months of 2011.

Up to 7.5 million cubic meters

The typical yearly cutting figures have been between five and six million m2 in the 2000s. This is about 6-7 percent of the timber volume required by the Finnish forest industry. The biggest customers are large Finnish forest industry companies that produce pulp, paper and sawn goods.

Most of the pulpwood produced by Metsähallitus is pine and spruce. The long-term conifer pulp of these is mainly used as reinforcement pulp. Some 60 per-cent of the total timber volume is pulp-wood, while the rest are sawn logs.

“In addition, stumps, logging residues and small-diameter wood are sold to power plants to be used for energy. We talk rather about wood energy than en-ergy wood.” Metsähallitus would like to deliver the right amount and quality of wood in a given time and place.

“We listen to the requirements of power companies and deliver exactly the right amount and type of wood energy that they need.”

Metsähallitus supplies wood to some 100 different delivery points around Fin-land. A small amount of wood is also de-livered to Sweden.

“Metsähallitus does not have its own wood processing operations,” says Kangas.

“Paper mills in Kemijärvi and Kajaani in Northern Finland were closed down, but there are still many pulp and paper mills, as well as sawmills, that need raw material in the North, for example, in Kemi, Kuusamo and Pudasjärvi.”

Not only profitability

According to Kangas, the other benefits that are generated by Metsähallitus as part of its business operations highlight its profitability.

“The consideration of these general social obligations cut the accounting profit by an estimated 58 million euros, or five million euros more than in 2010.

However, not everything can be thought of in terms of finances. It is also good to remember that

the performance of the Natural Her-itage Services, who are responsible for public administration duties, was also excellent and the unit has significantly improved its productivity.”

As a result of a successful profitability improvement program, other operative profit areas and subsidiaries also posted profits and were able to distribute divi-dends. According to Jyrki Kangas, this was an excellent achievement, consider-ing the market situation.

“Practically all of the profits generated by Metsähallitus are entered as income to the owner. In terms of dividend payments to the state, Metsähallitus is one of the best-performing state-owned companies and state enterprises.”

“So called social obligations also mean that the Finnish defence force can use our land. The Forest Research Institute can also utilize our forests. We also have re-markable water areas.”

Metsähallitus also has the Wild North concept, which is Finland’s most versatile nature adventure tour operator.

“We have listed all our accommoda-tion possibilities from wilderness cab-ins to luxury holiday cottages. The Wild North services also suit incentive groups.”

The concept of the Wild North is fore-going some changes, but the wilderness and other cabins will remain up for rent.

Land for sale

In European terms, the Finnish state has large forest reserves through Metsähal-litus. Some smaller plots are being sold.

“At the moment, we have around 4 000 hectares for sale. The earlier plots were less than five hectares. We now have many plots, sized between 10-20 hectares. There is also a large area of 200 hectares.”

“We have also sold forest plots earlier, but the plots are now a little bit bigger.”

There has been great discussion about Russians buying Finnish land plots and



Laatumaa Laatumaa is a business unit that deals with real estate activity within the Metsähallitus group. Since 1996, when the brand was established, Laatumaa has carried out land planning on the des-ignated areas of Metsähallitus and, as a result, leases or sells holi-day plots for anyone who is interested. Thousands and thousands of private and corporate customers have built a holiday home on land purchased from Laatumaa throughout the course of years.

Since a major portion of holiday homes were previously built on water-front areas, an increased amount of start-ups now take place in the ski resorts of Northern Finland. Metsähallitus is a sig-nificant land owner there and Laatumaa is a renowned seller of plots. Yet, it is a lesser-known fact that Laatumaa also takes part in the development of many resorts, together with the municipality and local entrepreneurs, enabling new facilities, ski lifts, hotels etc. that are essential for the success and future growth of the resort.

Apart from holiday plots and tourism based property develop-ment, Laatumaa sells and acquires parcels of forest land, subject to the owner´s principles, and works towards the better utilization of wind energy on state-owned areas.

www.laatumaa.com

summer cottages. “Russian interest has concentrated in

South-East and Eastern Finland. We have sold a number of plots to some other for-eign buyers,, but naturally, they are wel-come to leave their offers.”

“In Ylläs and Saariselkä, for example, we have carried our cooperation with municipalities in zoning activities. The Levi area, another large ski resort, has more private landowners, and we are not that active there.”

Most of the land selling, renting and property development of Metsähallitus passes through Laatumaa (see the side story).

Haltia in Nuuksio

Jyrki Kangas notes that the Natural Herit-age Services of Metsähallitus are impor-tant. The construction of the new Finnish Nature Center Haltia, on the fringes of Nuuksio National Park in Espoo, just 25 km from the centre of Helsinki, has be-gan. “Haltia” will be run by Metsähallitus Natural Heritage Services.

“Haltia has been designed to provide visitors with insights into the best of Fin-land’s wildlife and natural scenery. The importance of cherishing nature will also be reflected in the use of using ecological building techniques in the construction of the centre” says Kangas.

Large prefabricated wood-based ele-ments will be used for the first time in a major public building. The construction contract for the centre was assigned to YIT, and the building’s timber structures will be supplied by Stora Enso.

Ecological considerations were a ma-jor factor behind the choice of the new construction method, which will enhance the centre’s energy efficiency.

“Haltia has been designed to provide visitors with insights into the best of Fin-land’s wildlife and natural scenery. At the same time, the centre will also form part of the City of Espoo’s contributions to the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 scheme.”

www.metsa.fi


Transforming the Forest Industry

Forestcluster Ltd works as a platform to bring together companies and universities in research with the aim of increasing the speed of inno-vation processes.

Some have called Finland the land of green gold, referring to the vast forests that have his-torically provided a large por-

tion of the country’s exports. The indus-try is, however, in the throes of change.

Pulp and paper companies have seen the need to adapt to changing condi-tions in the market. If the challenges are great, so are the opportunities.

Forestcluster Ltd was founded in 2007 as a partnership between Finnish companies, research institutes and uni-versities. Its mission is to thoroughly renew the forest industry cluster and to create tools for radical innovations. Re-search programmes form the core of the activities.

– Since the challenges that the indus-try was facing were so significant, new momentum and co-operation models were needed, says Christine Hagström-Näsi, CEO of Forestcluster Ltd.

Text: Liisa LeevePhotos: Forestcluster, Dreamstime

ChristineHagström-Näsi,CEOofForestclusterLtd.


Companies and universities

Hagström-Näsi has been the CEO since the company was founded. Her back-ground is in wood chemistry and before joining Forestcluster, she worked as a di-rector at the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes).

Co-operation between researchers and companies lies at the heart of Forest-cluster’s research programmes. The larg-est Finnish forest industry companies, as well as machinery suppliers and chemical companies, are all shareholders in Forest-cluster.

Other shareholders include research institutes and universities. Both business-es, as well as researchers, are represented in the Board of Directors.

– That is what’s so great about what we do. We have the companies and the re-searchers on the same side of the table, so to speak, Hagström-Näsi points out.

While the partner companies con-tribute significantly to the financing of Forestcluster’s research programmes, the main public financier is the government run Tekes.

New biomass products

Together with the shareholders, Forest-cluster has defined three main areas of research: intelligent and resource effi-cient production technologies, future bio refineries and customer solutions of the future.

Hagström-Näsi says that the goal is to develop entirely new biomass products. Possible new uses can be found, for ex-ample, in the textile, medical and packag-ing industries.

– These new business models and value chains require a totally new kind of thinking. Compared to how the indus-try works today, some of the applications

work on a smaller scale and require com-pletely new partnerships.

Competing companies would have a conflict of interest in developing specific products together, but Forestcluster’s research aims at developing the greater picture. The focus is on precompetitive research and co-operation.

Building competitiveness

Christine Hagström-Näsi, however, as-sures that not everything is changing in the industry. Packaging, for example, is thriving as a result of the ever growing food industry.

Opportunities abound in wood and cellulose fibre products. Just as the in-creasing population of the world need food, they also need clothing and hous-ing.

– Oil reserves are diminishing, which will result in oil becoming more and

Co-operation between researchers and companies lies at the heart of Forestcluster’s research programmes. The largest Finnish forest industry companies, as well as machinery suppliers and chemical companies, are all shareholders in Forestcluster."



more expensive. But many things that are manufactured from oil can be replaced with renewable biomass products, Hag-ström-Näsi says.

The processes for replacing oil-based products with biomass counterparts al-ready exist today. For many products, it still makes sense to produce them out of oil, as they are often more efficiently re-fined.

Now, it is a matter of bringing qual-ity, production and cost efficiency to a competitive level. The switch to biomass products will not happen overnight.

– One possible route is to increase the percentage of renewable raw materials in products through government regu-lation. This has happened in fuels, Hag-ström-Näsi states.

Strategic Centres

Forestcluster is one of six Strategic Cen-tres for Science, Technology and Innova-tion (SHOKs). Forestcluster was the very first of the SHOKs to be established.

– The SHOKs offered a brilliant tool for renewing the research environment within the forest industry sector, Chris-tine Hagström-Näsi says.

The other five SHOKs are Energy and the environment, Metal products and mechanical engineering, Built environ-ment innovations, Health and wellbeing and Information and communication in-dustry and services.

The SHOKs work together on re-search programmes that have applica-tions in several fields. At the moment,

Forestcluster is working on a biomass and bioenergy project with the Energy and environment SHOK.

– In Finland, the most significant bio-masses are the by-products of the forest industry, although we’re also research-ing things such as algae and waste. The research includes sustainability assess-ments, as well as developing technol-ogy and value chains, Hagström-Näsi explains.

Network of Interests

Forestcluster’s goal is to broaden its scope and, eventually, include completely new businesses as partners. These would in-clude companies from the chemical in-dustry, such as paints and coating and

Forestcluster’s goal is to broaden its scope and, eventually, include completely new businesses as partners."



SHOKsForestcluster Ltd is one of the Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation (SHOKs). The SHOKs are non-profit companies, which influence six key areas of business life and society in Finland:

•Energy and the environment•Metal products and mechanical engineering •Forest cluster•Built environment innovations•Health and wellbeing•Information and communication industry and services

Shareholders include companies, universities and research institutes. The goal of their research is to develop breakthrough innovations of global importance, which can then be transformed into growth in busi-ness and increased wellbeing in society.

other polymer businesses.Hagström-Näsi says that the intro-

duction of new types of businesses will further speed up the development of new commercial applications. Forestcluster, as a partnership between the science and business communities, is an important tool in implementing this task.

The idea is to shorten the time span from an idea to a pre-commercial prod-uct and to get the best scientists to do the research.

– As we develop our research strategy processes, we are able to find a common direction and aspiration among all the parties concerned. The research is then our instrument to implement those aspi-rations.

www.forestcluster.fi

PunkalivesInnovative Furniture is Gaining Reputation Abroad

Text: Piia ViljaPhotos: Punkalive

Punkalive is a Finnish design company which has achieved national and international rec-ognition for their innovative design and use of laminated veneer spruce in furniture.



Punkalive’s products are de-signed to bring the Nordic landscapes to the consumers reach. The furniture com-

bines fluently warm wood and sturdy appearance. The material used in the products is untouched and both, the design and production methods, em-phasize the principle of ecology and sustainable production. The design is timeless and the natural look of Punka-live’s products makes it suitable to all interior styles. In addition to chairs, ta-bles and shelves Punkalive also manu-factures handy storage units.

In Punkalive’s furniture smaller details might be metal or fabric, but the prod-ucts mainly consist of laminated veneer spruce. Th e material is better known in construction industry and Punkalive is a fi rst known brand to use it in their furni-ture. “It was in 2008 when we were doing another project and I had a need to have certain types of boxes made. Th e factory I went to had experience on using laminat-ed veneer spruce. Although my intention was to use normal laminate, the factory recommended I would use laminated ve-neer spruce, a material which would suit my needs better. Th at is how the whole in-

novations chain started,” tells Jukka Ris-sanen, managing director of Punkalive.

Punkalive owns a patent to their prod-ucts in many continents. Jukka Rissanen explains that they way the furniture is made, the product is hard to plagiarise. Th at is why they have been very unique for so long.

Marketing and branding

“From the beginning we chose as our strategy to aim to the international mar-ket,” Jukka Rissanen explains. It was in 2009, when the company was two months


novations chain started,” tells Jukka Ris-, managing director of Punkalive.

In Punkalive’s furniture

smaller details might be

metal or fabric, but the

products mainly consist of

laminated veneer spruce."



old, when they launched their col-lection in a design fair in M i l a n o . “We presented our odd looking furniture in the fair. We had normal everyday stuff , but it just looked weird because of the design and material,” Jukka Rissanen re-members.

Since that Punkalive has been in many international design fairs; three years in a row in Milano and in Köln. In Finland they have taken part to Habitare-fair.

“We have done our marketing through these design fairs and brought our brand and the material to public knowledge.

Because of we use laminated veneer spruce in our furniture, we had to fi rst explain our material and tell how it is col-lected and prove that it is safe.”

Punkalive previously concentrated on the marketing and branding side and has now started to emphasise production and sales. Punkalive has opened pop up store in Helsinki Eteläesplanaadi. Jukka Rissanen tells that via the shop they have been able to connect to the consumers, designers and decorators in a very diff er-ent way since people can see the whole ensemble of products and values.

Punkalive started to sell their prod-

ucts to masses at the beginning of the year. Th ey are hoping that the year’s turnover would be around million Eu-ros. Jukka Rissanen is positive that they will hit their target.

Punkalive has united production. Pro-duction means and know-how is located in Punkaharju, in Punkaharjun Puutaito Oy. It is a family run company which makes Punkalive products. Th e product development, marketing and internation-al relations are concentrated in Helsinki. “We have a good working relation. Both production and marketing side have in-vested to the company in their own way,

old, when they launched their col-



ucts to masses at the beginning of the year. Th ey are hoping that the year’s turnover would be around million Eu-ros. Jukka Rissanen is positive that they

lection in a design fair in M i l a n o . “We presented our odd looking furniture in the fair. We had normal everyday stuff , but it just looked weird because of the


Punkalive previously concentrated on the marketing and branding side and

old, when they launched their col-



with money and time,” Jukka Rissanen enlightens.

Internationally Punkalive has small offi ce in Munchen, Germany. Th e offi ce manages eight diff erent agents who are representing and selling Punkalive prod-ucts around Europe.

“Our European section started to operate in February 2012. We have now started to take advantage of the market-ing work we did before and we have less-en our marketing eff orts and increase our production size. We also need to have re-tailers and agents who sell our products. Part of our work now is to learn how to provide good customer service.”

Ecological values

Punkalive products are developed in Punkaharju, an area after which the com-pany has been named after. Punkaharju is beautiful area in Eastern Finland and it is well known for its river landscape and a ridge. Nine kilometres long ridge was

formed during the ice-age and it is rare natural phenomenon.

“We want to tell people that Punka-live has a home where we come from. We want to be associated with a clean nature in Punkaharju and it enables us to have a rich story behind our products. It is im-portant to have a meaning when it comes to design, shapes, colours and materials. We also get our inspiration from the na-ture in Punkaharju.”

Punkalive’s carbon footprint is very small. Wood is naturally renewable re-source and all the wood comes within 100km from the factory in Punkaharju. In the factory the design is computer based and no material is wasted. Even the small-est pieces can be used.

Laminated veneer lumber

All Punkalive products are solemnly made from laminated veneer spruce. “We have aimed to that our furniture does not have separate legs, back rest or seats. Eve-

rything is one big piece. Th at is one of the stigmatizing aspects of our design,” Jukka Rissanen explains.

Laminated veneer spruce was invent-ed 30 years ago to meet the needs of con-struction industry. One veneer lumber plate is 23 meters long and 2.5 meters wide. Today CNC-milling machines have developed further and it has become pos-sible to create free forms and work thick-er material.

“Th anks to the development of mill-ing technology, the idea was born to use laminated veneer lumber in furniture and design.”

To create the furniture the laminated veneer spruce plate is milled to suitable shape and then diff erent components are glued together. Th is way enables the ma-terial to be used in diff erent shapes and forms. Punkalive produces chairs, boxes, tables and even walls using this tech-nique.

“Of course we are constantly develop-ing our products and design. Th is tech-


with money and time,” Jukka Rissanen enlightens.

Internationally Punkalive has small offi ce in Munchen, Germany. Th e offi ce

formed during the ice-age and it is rare natural phenomenon.

“We want to tell people that Punka-live has a home where we come from. We

rything is one big piece. Th at is one of the stigmatizing aspects of our design,” Jukka Rissanen explains.

Laminated veneer spruce was invent-



nique allows us to be very creative in our design and create many objects; you could say that at the moment we feel like we are Alice in the Wonderland. Th ere are pos-sibilities we aren’t yet even aware of.”

Th e products surface is a living ma-terial and Punkalive does not treat the wood, because they do not want to sup-press woods natural appear. Every item has an individual touch in them.

Designers

Punkalive has fi ve designers. Th ree of them, Jukka Lommi, Jukka T Tapio and Raimo Räsänen, are Finnish and have been with the company since beginning. Later on, the company has acquired two foreign designers; Russian Kristina Mag-nitskaya, and a world-famous industrial designer Egyptian Karim Rashid.

“At the beginning an architect Jukka Lommi designed the modular system and he has also created furniture. With a further the help from Jukka T Tapio and

Raimo Räsänen we have familiarised our-selves with the design and tried diff erent things,” Jukka Rissanen tells.

Foreign designers have come along to bring international touch to the Punka-live design. “We want to create diff erent products to diff erent markets. We don’t want to be necessarily tied to Scandina-vian functionalism. Th at’s why we have for example Kristina Magnitskaya, who is from St.Petersburg, designing products to Russian market. We see this as a ground work we have laid: we are prepared for our future in the Russian market.”

In 2009 Punkalive started collabora-tion with well known designer Karim Rashid. He has agreed to create a whole range of new products for the Punkalive collection. “We met Karim Rashid in in-ternational design fair and he was really fascinated by our products. He is now de-signing products for us and we are going to see where this collaboration takes us,” Jukka Rissanen informs.

Jukka Rissanen tells that the problem

with Finnish designers is that although they might be well known in Finland and very talented; internationally Finn-ish designers are still relatively unknown. Karim Rashid in the other hand is world-famous industrial designer who has suc-cessfully managed to translate his own style to Punkalive products. With his infl uence and celebrity status Punkalive hopes to gain even more international recognition.

Punkalive have many partners with whom they design partner products with. “Th e way it works is that we provide the design and our partner technology. Th is way we can expand our product range without needing to invest in technology, and it works the other way to our part-ners too,” Jukka Rissanen tells.

Punkalive has partner collaborations with PowerKiss, a wirless phone charger they have created Avanto PowerTray for; Innojoki-lamp makers, and Amphion-loudspeakers.

www.punkalive.fi


nique allows us to be very creative in our design and create many objects; you could say that at the moment we feel like we are

Raimo Räsänen we have familiarised our-selves with the design and tried diff erent things,” Jukka Rissanen tells.

with Finnish designers is that although they might be well known in Finland and very talented; internationally Finn-


Comptel

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Sini Pennanen

One of the big things in mobile telecom business has been that it is not only cell phone business anymore. “The mobile business has changed from delivering basic telecommunications services to collaborating and competing with other players emerging from especially Internet – creating some completely new business opportunities when people using diverse entertainment and communication services,” says Juhani Hintikka, the CEO of Comptel.

Helping Communications Service Providers Grow

JuhaniHintikka,theCEOofComptel


Over the years, Comptel has earned an enviable reputation in telecoms, with software that enables CSPs – Communica-

tions Service Providers – to launch services and to charge for them. Comptel solutions have helped close to 300 service providers in close to 90 countries deliver their custom-ers’ communication and infotainment needs, improving the customer experiences while creating revenues, reducing costs and less-ening churn.

Comptel’s track record is impressive, with mediation software solutions that currently process around 20 percent of the world’s mobile usage records. Close to one billion mobile phone users are using services pro-visioned by Comptel’s fulfillment solutions.

Juhani Hintikka says that Comptel soft-ware solutions enables telecom operators to deliver services flexibly.

“We cooperate with telecom compa-nies who want to lower their customer ac-quisition costs and increase their revenue potentials, for example, through SIM card solutions. Our wide expertise in service ful-fillment, mediation and charging empowers customers to focus on delivering innovative services.”

The whole telecom and network busi-nesses are changing rapidly. Broadband traf-fic has surged in recent years. The spending on the capacity needed to meet that demand has also grown.

“New lifestyle services have significantly increased the amount and complexity of information that Communications Service Providers need to collect and process from their networks,” says Hintikka.

“At the same time, Communications Ser-vice Providers’ revenues have not increased proportionally due to a fierce competition on prices and flat rate data bundles. Now, CSPs are seeking new ways to manage and mon-etize their broadband offerings by providing more personalized services to their custom-ers and interact with them at the points most relevant to them.”

CSPs need to manage varied technologies when delivering the optimized capacities for ever increasing data services provided by

multiple parties and offered with variety of services levels and pricing models.

“One aspect in customer retention is to help CSPs understand better their custom-ers’ needs and behavior. CSPs need more advanced insight and tools to interact with their customers to analyze and predict their behavior.”

Policy control One key solution in Comptel’s portfolio is policy control, which helps CSPs to prioritize and charge their customers according to the usage of the services and network capacities.

“This means that policy control systems aggregate information to and from the net-work, operating support systems, and other sources – such as portals – in real time. The aim is to support the creation of rules and then automatically make intelligent policy decisions for each subscriber transaction on the network.”

Juhani Hintikka gives an example of pri-oritization, a mobile user requesting a video

streaming: “The CSP can offer more capac-ity for the streaming at premium price. Such offering requires the management of service charging rules in a complex network envi-ronment and in real time.”

Event-analysis-action Comptel Customer Engagement solutions are built on an “event-analysis-action” para-digm. The “event” element represents the ability to turning large volumes of data about customers and services usage and experi-ences, and other sources into information. “Analysis” symbolizes the capability to turn information into intelligence. And finally, “action” summarizes turning intelligence into personalized, relevant and timely inter-actions with users of communication ser-vices.

In the interview, Mr. Hintikka draws a tri-angle to show these three cusps. “In a way, we had event and action parts already. Event is linked to mediation and action to provision. We largely missed the third cusp, which was

Comptel brand The Comptel brand reflects the combination of the rational with the emotional. At the core of Comptel’s brand is the logo. Like the company, it is confident and bold. But it also denotes an approachable, friendly and engaging personality.

The first two letters of Comptel are highlighted as a constant reminder that the company believes strongly in partnerships, not only externally with customers and partners, but also internally between teams and departments, The “co” brings to mind words like “cooperate”, “collaborate” and “co-create”. Further, surrounding the “co” are two abstract, roughly formed letters “c” and “o”, which refer to the data particles connecting the logo with the new tagline – “Making Data Beautiful”.

The tagline expresses not just what Comptel does, but how Comptel personnel feel about it and what they stand for. It combines the rational (data) with the emo-tional (beautiful), which basically defines Comptel.

As already stated above, Comptel’s software collects and processes staggering amounts of data worldwide. The solutions turn data into information, information into intelligence, and intelligence into actions, and, ultimately, into what do bring people closer to their interests and their loved ones.

The logo graphics show that data can also be visually fresh and beautiful. The “horizon line” is also a reminder that a lot of that beauty is hidden below the surface, and that it takes people like those at Comptel to turn that data into the beauty for all to see.

by Ulla Koivukoski, SVP, Marketing and Communications



All in all, our clientele includes almost 300 teleoperators in almost 90 countries. We employ about 640 people, of which one third works in Finland. We are truly a global company.”

analysis. The acquisition of Finnish Xtract Oy, completed this year, added another leg into our ‘events-analysis-action’ strategy. The competences in the analytics will be one of the key future success factors also for our customers.

“Analytics can even mean deep knowl-edge and intelligence, which is needed in finding solutions for superior customer ex-periences and engagement. Xtract Oy does valuable analysis work with the help of algo-rithms, for example.

“Through the Xract acquisition we got 30 world class professionals who now work in the same Helsinki premises. Much of our R & D is done also in Helsinki in broader terms.”

Cloud is here to stayAn important concept in modern ICT is cloud. In Juhani Hintikka’s view, it is essential to understand that cloud is here to stay.

“It is inevitable that certain parts of ICT businesses have already moved to cloud. This means that the systems managing those businesses must follow suit. Cloud is another way to construct the network and business model that we need to support in the same way as mobile and broadband networks.

“We can provide customers operational visibility of the cloud environment. This al-lows full transparency of operations, service levels, account status, etc., to maximize op-erational control and customer confidence, when using cloud services.

“Our fulfillment solution uses automated order management process to minimize the need for human intervention to deliver the cloud service offering close to real time.”

Another important concept is policy con-trol. This means rating and charging users according to pre-defined policies, ensuring speed and consistency of response for high quality customer experiences and multiple pricing models, which is required for cloud services.

New strategy Juhani Hintikka started as the CEO of Comptel in January 2011. Almost immedi-ately he started shaping the new strategy.

“We renewed the organization and exec-utive board, established new teams and of-fices, launched new values and formulated a new strategy. We also hired a significant amount of new people to get closer to our customers and prospects. Also some had to leave.”

One of Comptel’s challenges is recruit-ing. “We have used multiple ways of recruit-ing the needed competences such as by col-laborating with the relevant institutes and universities, using the personal networks of our employees and recruiting companies.”

More and more, global personal net-works are crucial for finding the best candi-dates. There are less risks at both sides and the recruitment process is clearly quicker. “Collaboration with the universities cre-

ates the employer image and is important to build up the sustainable long-term talent pool,” believes Hintikka.

“In addition, we increased our invest-ments in R&D to bring new products to the market. Today about 20 percent of the turnover is used in R&D.”

Billions of transactions Comptel has a global reach and has demon-strated the capability to process a staggering amount of data.

“In India, for example, every day there are around 20 billion mobile phone transac-tions processed by our software. One single operator can have 4-10 billion transactions that have to be billed or otherwise processed. It is estimated that more than 90 percent of transactions are based in pre-paid SIM cards and only 10 percent on post-paid charging system in India.”

China has been more challenging. “We have entered the Chinese market only in a limited scale. It seems that it is difficult to get good income of software there.”

“In Australia our position is quite strong. I am pleased that NBNCo has become a cus-tomer there. NBNCo is doing very leading-edge things, bringing high-speed broadband to virtually every premise in Australia.

“NBSCo’s broadband concept is a very high profile initiative. I know many other countries are looking carefully at similar de-velopments, so we are excited about being part of this ground-breaking initiative.”



Facts about customer and personnel satisfaction:

In customer satisfaction, the percentage of favourable share (of respondents ei-ther very satisfied or completely satisfied) has increased from 2010 61 percent to 65 percent in 2011.

In 2011, 71 percent of responding companies are very or fully engaged with Comptel. This is a significant increase from last survey (2010) when the value was 62 percent.

Engagement index is average of

• Overall, how satisfied are you with Comptel?• How likely are you to recommend Comptel to friends or colleagues?• How likely is it that you will continue to purchase products or services form

Comptel?• If you were selecting a similar provider for the first time, how likely is it that you

would choose Comptel?

In personnel satisfaction there was an increase of as much as 33 percentage points when asked about if the vision of the future motivates you. There was even a larger increase, 38 percentage points, when asked if the leadership can give a clear picture of the future direction of the company.

www.comptel.com

Juhani Hintikka notes that Comptel has done well in APAC region.

“In Americas we are not that big, but still, we have some 20 teleoperator customers there.

“All in all, our clientele includes almost 300 teleoperators in almost 90 countries. We employ about 640 people, of which one third work in Finland. We are truly a global company.

“In Malesia the number of our staff comes close to 200. We have units in Dubai, Oslo, in Reading near London, as well as in Milan, Delhi, Sao Paulo and Sydney. Just several weeks ago we opened the office in Istanbul.

“It is important to be close to customers. But we do not seek to establish large hubs. In many markets we can operate with a team of 2-4 people.

“Our ambition in the year 2012 is to grow over 10 percent from the previous year while the operating profit is estimated to represent 5-10 percent of net sales.”

Values Comptel’s values are central to the organi-zation ability to deliver on the strategy.

The values include passion. “This means that we are proud and excited about our achievements and the benefits we bring to our customers.

“The other term is united – we work as a team and support each other to reach our common goal.

“The third cornerstone is respect. We listen to our customers and serve them with pride. What is also needed is the make-it-happen attitude. We focus on solutions; nothing is impossible.”

"The fourth is what is needed: ‘make it happen’ –attitude."

These are not merely words, but values that bond the company together and are part of the corporate culture.

“Surveys that we conducted at the end of the year showed that the change process has improved both our personnel and customer satisfaction.”


StonesoftCEO,IlkkaHiidenheimo:

Agility Neededin Combating Cyber-Threats

StonesoftCEO, IlkkaHiidenheimo,saysthatthere isnoreal100percentsecurityinICTissues.

“Youcan,however,raisethebarsohighthatwhensome-thinghappens,thedamagesarelimited.WithStonesoft’sdy-namicandcustomerdrivennetworksecuritysolutions,onecanensureandsimplifytheirsecuritymanagement.”

Text:Finland of NetworksPhotos:Stonesoft

T he threat of cyber threats is con-crete and substantial. Over the last two years, practically all the major defence companies have

been victims of hackers. “This is interesting, because these

organizations have 24/7 security teams looking after their networks, and are pro-tected with the so-called best of the breed products.”

Some of the biggest publicly known at-tacks last year were against RSA, Epsilon, Sony, Lockheed Martin, Citigroup, Sega and Diginotar. These attacks compro-mised millions of personal information records and credit cards. Diginotar even went bankrupt as a result of the breach.

In a race against hackers and other disturbances, Stonesoft is going to be in the frontline.

“We announced a new concept in San Francisco this year, the industry’s first future-proof transformable security en-


IlkkaHiidenheimo,StonesoftCEO

gine,” says Hiidenheimo. The Stonesoft Security Engine is ca-

pable of delivering seven enterprise-class product configuration modes to provide contextually-aware, next generation se-curity capabilities.

“What we have announced is some-thing that is totally different from what has ever been available before. The devel-opment of the Security Engine is a part of our philosophy. We do not believe that network security is a static area. The business and functions of organizations evolve in a similar way as the threats evolve. This means that without adaptiv-ity, the capability of your solution will de-crease all the time.”

The core of the solution is the Stonesoft security software that can be run in three different operating modes, depending on the customer preferences. All of these operating modes share the same access control and deep inspection capabilities.

“This means that security levels or im-plementation layers are no longer tied to any siloed product. Instead, for the Secu-rity Engine, these are just configuration options and a matter of customer prefer-ences. In addition, the customer may pick and choose the preferred features, which means that the system can be configured to work as any currently available net-work security product on the market.”

The software based solution is also up-gradable from head to toe, which makes it possible to improve or extend any part of the product during it life cycle. This makes it fully future proof.

Long-term vision and agility

Ilkka Hiidenheimo says that Stonesoft’s long term vision is to stop viewing secu-rity as a fixed product or definition.

“Instead, we need solutions that have the adaptability and scalability of a ser-vice. We have achieved this goal by cre-ating something that can evolve, adapt, scale up and transform over time. These requirements mirror the feedback that



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we have received from customers over the last decade.”

“Our competitive strategy is strongly based on customer excellence. Having big ears when listening to customers helps us to develop, in particular, the usability of our technologies, making it meet the needs of different business environments, as well as pricing and service models. We are very proud of our 95% customer re-tention rate, which is the highest in the industry. “

The product portfolio of Stonesoft consists of standalone next genera-tion firewalls and intrusion prevention systems, as well as SSL VPN solutions. Something new may be coming:

“Although we have not observed any major changes in the network security product portfolios over the last ten years, I believe that this area is under constant pressure to develop new approaches. When we started to develop our own testing of Advanced Evasion Techniques (AET), we discovered that this area had been totally neglected. The whole indus-try has just recently began to understand what this means.

I also believe that the need for agility will become a mandatory requirement in the future.”

Many kinds of losses

Stonesoft serves private and public sector organizations, requiring high availability, the ease of management, compliance, dy-namic security and the protection of their critical digital assets and business conti-nuity against today’s rapidly evolving cy-ber threats. What are the most dangerous kinds of cyber threats in the terms of pos-sible economic losses?

“When we talk about economic losses and what kinds of threats are the most dangerous, we need to think about the scale of what we talking about - are we talking about cyber hacking against or-ganizations or are we talking about cyber war.”

In Hiidenheimo’s view, for organiza-tions, there are three different levels of risks.

“First, you can lose your valuable as-sets. This could be digital money or IPRs. Second, somebody can harm your sys-tems by preventing you from running your business functions. Third, you could lose your reputation and credibility in a way that will force you to go out of busi-ness.”

The cyber threats come in many for-mats. However, in the event that several

different attacks all result in the same information loss, it would be difficult to point out which method is more danger-ous than the others.

“In practice, we have seen over and over again how the simple attacks, such as SQL injection, password guessing or the exploitation of known vulnerabilities in the client’s or server’s software allow the attackers to gain access to the systems and data. Many companies have a lot to improve even with the basic security con-trol, such as network segmentation with firewalls and IPS devices, authentication and access control.”

Fierce competition

Stonesoft has the highest customer reten-tion rate in the industry, due to their low TCO, the ease of management, and over-all customer excellence. What companies are your fiercest competitors, or, at least, from which countries?

“Geographically, all of our competi-tors come from either US or Israel. Which companies we see as our competitors var-ies from country to country. When prod-uct decisions are done based on fierce testing, we have quite a good possibility to win,” believes Ilkka Hiidenheimo.



“The industry is consolidating fast and we have observed quite many merg-ers and acquisitions recently. There is an enormous strong industry transforma-tion going on and the paradigm is shift-ing. What used to be a dominant way of securing networks has recently been los-ing ground.

“Innovativeness, agility, flexibility and adaptability are the key words for the se-curity vendors of the new season. Large giants and hardware based technolo-gies have definitely reached an inflection point and they are being forced to trans-form.”

Stonesoft’s customer base covers more than 6 000 medium- or large-sized organizations, with over 45 000 installa-tions across various industries and geo-graphical markets. Where do you have the largest customer stock? The smallest companies are not your target group?

“At the present time, we see Europe as our home market and most of our customers are located in Europe. We see our geographic presence as being quite optimal. In the long run, the importance of the Asia-Pacific area will increase. Of course, we are constantly looking for new opportunities where we can see Stonesoft has something new to deliver. We cur-rently have operations in 16 countries

and our main focus today is to expand in these countries. “

“As our solutions meet the needs of the most demanding environments, such as critical networks and military grade networks, most our customers are large or medium size organizations.”

“Our largest customer vertical today is governmental organizations. We have, for example, more than 50 ministries as our customers. Our value proposition is the highest in the case of highly distrib-uted and complex organizations with a need for high-end security. Also, organi-zations that require increased operation-al efficiency and centralized management benefit the most from our solutions.”

Cyber security

Ilkka Hiidenheimo says that Cyber Se-curity is a universal issue and concern. Some countries have set nation level cy-ber security programs and their industry profile is more attractive to criminals.

“However, at the end of the day, we are in the technology and product busi-ness which is global and universal, which means the products need very little tai-loring and adoption to meet the needs of a single customer before they are deliv-ered and deployed. In other words, un-

like services, our products scale up easily. When it comes to delivering the required services, we always partner with strong local service providers who operate close to the customers.”

“Network security is clearly a growth area. What we have been trying to do is create a balanced way to maximize these possibilities. Stonesoft’s recent growth is the result of the successful execution of our strategy with an increased focus on customer intimacy. We strongly believe the investors will look at our customer base and how steady it is in the long term.”

The US stock exchange controller SEC has urged the reporting hacker attacks, at least shortly. Will this increase your branch of business?

“Brand reputation is one of the key interests of boards and top manage-ment. I believe that the SEC initiative will put network security to the table of the boards and top management.”

“Moreover, I believe that pressure from different security regulations to disclose the security breaches is good for everyone. This will force organizations to develop their security into a direction that will actually stop the attacks. This, in turn, will also increase the trust of their customers and eventually benefit their business.”

www.stonesoft.com

Innovativeness, agility, flexibility and adaptability are the key words for the security vendors of the new season."


Erlund House

– Individual, Warm and Healthy LivingText: Michael NaglerPhotos: Erlund House

Based in Mellilä, southern Finland, Erlund House has manufactured prefabricated log houses with its unique patented wall system since 1993. ”Such a building is three times more energy efficient than an equiv-alent laminated log house,” says Er-lund House's CEO Timo Erlund.


Since 1978 Erlund House has constructed and exported high quality log houses around the world. Indeed, foreign markets

have always been a cornerstone of the company's activity. ”Over 90 per cent of our production is geared towards ex-ports. Half of this goes to Germany, but we also do business with Central Europe, China and Japan, among others,” says Mr. Erlund. Being the company's largest ex-

port market, Germany has always been important for Erlund House. ”We have operated there since 1978. The reunifica-tion in 1990 expanded the German mar-ket, which was naturally good for us.”

In 2005 the company gained promi-nence in the UK when it was featured in an episode of Grand Designs, a British television series which features unusual and elaborate architectural homebuilding projects. Erlund House is so far the only

Nordic manufacturer of detached houses to have been featured in the series. ”It was a fun experience, seeing profession-als working up close. Their camera crew was in Finland for a few days. They were friendly and took great pains to be impar-tial, going so far as to pay for the petrol at the petrol station. The programme also opened up the British market for us.”

All in all, Erlund House has built log houses in over 30 countries. Noteworthy examples include a convent in Belgium, a school in England, several churches and a hospital in Germany, as well as an Er-lund log house in West Boldon, England that was nominated the most ecological building in England in 2009.

Unique patented wall system

Behind the company's success is its unique patented wall system. In 1993 Er-lund House developed a new thermally efficient and natural log wall structure. Although such a technique remains faith-ful to the old log building traditions of

Finland, it also enabled the company to meet Germany's stricter thermal

insulation regulations. The new wall system soon became popular.

”An Erlund log house is an incredibly warm building with

excellent thermal insulation values. This is thanks to

the wall structure, which



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consists of a tight double tongue and groove log wall, which in turn is pro-tected by an external panelled wall from heart sawn spruce panels. Between them is ekovilla (eco wool) insulation, which is made from recycled paper. This cre-ates a totally natural breathable log wall structure,” says Mr. Erlund. ”As a result less wood is used in construction, which also leads to the building being consider-ably cheaper. Also, since the structure is very sturdy and can withstand all sorts of weather, the building requires less renovation than usual and has a very long lifespan. All of this combines to contrib-ute to a very small carbon footprint.”

Erlund House's wall system has also proven to be healthy for the inhabitants of an Erlund log house. Moisture is un-able to form in the structure because the inner wall is thicker and denser than the external panelled wall. Therefore haz-ardous mold is prevented and the room air stays fresh. In a 2010 customer sur-vey commissioned by Erlund House it was revealed that a significant number of people who had moved into an Erlund log house had experienced a marked im-provement to their health. ”Over 20 per cent of all respondents said that their health had improved significantly after moving in. And we didn't ask whether they were ill or healthy, so you can imag-

ine how many ill people had gotten bet-ter,” says Mr. Erlund.

In addition to the aforementioned ecological, energy and health factors, it must also be said that log houses in gen-eral are visually and aesthetically pleas-ing. Although the general imagination might think that they are mostly suited for the countryside, such buildings are also very well suited for an urban envi-ronment. In that sense log houses also contribute to urban renewal.

Use of private wood

Erlund House is dedicated to the custom-ers and their wishes. Because of this the customers can provide input and influence the shape and form of the desired building. Each building is tailor-made according to the customer's needs and wishes. On its website the company provides models of one- and two-story detached buildings, ranging in size from 55m² to 136m². These are not strict limits, however. Rather, they

are guidelines meant to assist the custom-er in the design of the desired house.

In addition to contributing to the de-sign, the customers can also provide their own wood for the construction. This is common practice for Erlund House, but the great Boxing Day winter storm of 2011 increased demand tremendously. Suddenly forest owners found themselves saddled with an immense amount of fallen trees. ”We were very much affected by the storm. Since Boxing Day we have re-

ceived over 200 orders. In this situation our automated production line gives us an advantage over our competitors,” says Mr. Erlund. According to him, it is more advantageous for private forest owners to provide the wood to Erlund House and have their houses built from that than to sell the wood to a forestry company. ”Even if you make 100,000 euros, you end up paying half of it in taxes, whereas if you subcontract us to manufacture a building from your wood you could save up to 80

per cent. We also benefit by saving storage expenses. In general, if you own forest, you should construct from your own wood.”

That Erlund House constructs houses from naturally fallen wood due to the Boxing Day storm episode also show-cases a particular trait in Finnish forestry and wood construction. Though the for-ests have always been an important part of the Finnish economy, or perhaps be-cause of it, the country is free from the bane of excessive logging that plagues many other parts of the world and results in environmental destruction. Great care has always been taken in ensuring that forestry does not spoil the clean and pris-tine environment for which Finland is re-nowned around the world. Erlund House contributes to this by purchasing their wood solely from private forest owners.

Future prospects

In the end, Tomi Erlund is confident about the future of the log house mar-ket. He sees great potential in its eco-logical aspects. ”A log house is very environmentally friendly. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, and wood is a renew-able resource, after all. With rising fuel costs, people will be looking more and more towards ways to save energy and resources. In that regard, the ekovilla insulation in an Erlund log house is like none other,” Mr. Erlund says.

www.erlund-house.fi

Documents

Business Finland 2/2012