A Phased Paper Machine Drive & Control System Upgrade

This paper will review the upgrade of CMPC Paper Machine #19 at Maule, Chile. The upgrade involved retrofitting the existing control system to remove the obsolete master controllers, updating and standardizing the drive system from different AC drive manufacturers to a single one, and adding a new machine section to improve product quality. The project was designed and executed in four phases that lasted a total of three years. The first phase of the project replaced the original four master controllers with new state-of-the-art controllers, which were compatible with the communication protocols of the existing drive system. The subsequent three phases of the project replaced the existing drives, all from a mix of different manufacturers, with a new modern drive system. In total, 142 drives were installed, commissioned, and tuned during the course of this upgrade. A challenge was presented by continuing to operate with the unique combination of existing drives, from different manufacturers, and new drives during the phases of the project. The staged design of the project helped reduce the outage time impact. This Paper Machine upgrade project was completed ahead of schedule and has exceeded the expectation of a successful upgrade.