Miller Electric converted the newsprint paper machine in DeRidder, Louisiana to a world class Kraft medium paper machine. Several upgrades and installments were made throughout this seven month project, which included over 111.744 man hours and over ten million dollars.
Miller Electric added four new plate refiners (pine, 2-OCC and hardwood) to the facility. We also upgraded the power distribution by adding two new 13.8KV substation transformers, which feed power to a brand new two story MCC room. We installed two new 2300V drive line ups and three new 480v MCC’s in various locations within the plant for power to the new vacuum pumping station. Four new refiners, misc. agitators, and stock pumps were also installed. Included in the system was a new automated chemical dispensing system.
Instrumentation was upgraded to the existing cabinets and the addition of several remote marshalling cabinets, new PLC cabinets, fiber optical racks, data cat-6, and a new web based camera system to accommodate the new paper machine equipment was installed.
The DC drive line which feeds power and encoder speed to all paper machine drive motors was upgraded during the project. This was a challenging task as we had to be careful to not upset operations before the shutdown. Our team performed this task flawlessly and made sure the machines were ready in time.
We completely demolished the existing winder and roll handling equipment to make room for entirely new machinery and systems. This upgrade was a huge improvement from the existing equipment.
Overall, the Miller Electric team successfully completed this project and was on time in doing so.
Team on project:
Vice President: Mike Brannen
Senior Project Manager: Tim Rogers
Project Manager: Cameron Engskow
Site Superintendent: Joe Suggs
General Foreman: Bill Coulter
Field Electrician: Joey Lester
Safety: Berkley Thompson