Headquartered in Finland, and having employees in Scandinavia, Central Europe, the USA, and China, Runtech Systems is actively working to expand their presence in India. Runtech Systems is a reliable partner for solutions to improve the runnability and efficiency of tissue, board, paper, and pulp machines and control their operational conditions to maximize efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Runtech’s patented solutions include energy-efficient vacuum system and heat recovery optimization, runnability optimization, dewatering, doctoring, and cleanliness optimization as well as ropeless tail threading, including related services, spare parts, and paper machine audits and consulting. In a recent interaction with Paper Mart magazine, Mr. Hannu Kääriä, Sales Director (Asia-Pacific), & Mr. Tommi Leander, Sales Manager, Runtech Systems, talked about their company, its history, products, and services offered. They also shared their plans and outlook for the Indian market.
Paper Mart: Please tell us about your company, the kind of manufacturing facilities you have, and your product offerings.
Hannu Kääriä: Established in 1997, Runtech Systems Oy became a part of Gardner Denver family in 2018. In 2020, Gardner Denver merged with Ingersoll Rand Industrial Segment and Runtech Systems is now a part of Ingersoll Rand. We are a global provider of engineered systems tailored to the pulp and paper industries. We work with customers to better understand and control their operational conditions to maximize efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Our main target is to bring notable energy savings and highly improved process efficiency for board, tissue, and paper mills.
Strong specialization in the field, profound papermaking know-how, and wide experience enable our customers to save both money and time. The very first step to enhancing paper machine’s runnability or energy efficiency is to extensively analyze the process and eliminate any bottlenecks. After the audit and comprehensive discussions with the customer, we provide a complete written report summarizing necessary actions for production optimization.
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PM: How does Runtech Systems help customers achieve significant energy savings compared to traditional systems?
HK: When we are talking about the vacuum system, it’s a very energy-intensive process. RunEco Paper Machine Vacuum Blower System provides a reliable, completely water-free vacuum solution with a saving potential of 30 to 70 percent in energy. Less energy and no water contribute to lower CO2 emissions and smaller environmental footprint. EP Turbo Blowers are always variable speed and capacity, which allows the vacuum system to be optimized quickly without bleed air and with minimal throttling and expansion losses. Rotation speed and vacuum level can be adjusted according to the process requirements. It also offers significant heat recovery potential. We also provide solutions to improve paper machine runnability, tail threading and cleanliness and dewatering.
Equipping paper machines with well-performing ropeless tail threading, web stabilizers and optimizing the machine geometry allows mills to benefit from improved runnability with less breaks and draw, improved pocket humidity level and profile, shortened tail threading times and operator safety.
PM: Please shed light on any recent or upcoming developments at Runtech System.
HK: We are continuously improving our existing product portfolio and developing new products. On the Turbo Blower system side, we are currently developing different kinds of impeller models to further improve efficiency and flow capacity of the system. Motors and bearings are also always on the table for R&D. Current rolling bearing unit has taken several steps forward during the years. Also a new motor with magnetic bearings is in a long test phase and will be released soon. We are continuously following the market needs and developing our products to meet customer requirements. We have a team of five to six people who are full-time R&D.
PM: Please tell us about your market footprint in India and internationally.
HK: Runtech Systems is a global company. Today, we have sold over 1,000 Turbo Blowers. Given the average energy saving of 45%, this translates to energy savings of 2.35 TWh and a reduction of 704,000 tons of CO2 a year. We operate in all continents either with local employees or through our extensive agent network. So in each area, each country, where there is pulp and paper production, we have a local agent who supports our sales and projects. In India, we are working in close cooperation with Eintec, our Indian partner.
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PM: How do you look forward to the Indian market? How many clients do you have in India?
HK: India is a promising market for us. We plan to have a local team in India, building on our existing customer base. Our first project in India dates back to 2018, and we now have a strong reference base. We have supplied over 20 EP Turbo Blowers to Indian customers, some being repeat orders. The growth potential is evident. We are actively working to expand our presence in this market as we can clearly see how our energy-efficient solutions would benefit the papermakers in India.
Tommi Leander: I would like to encourage companies to contact us for doing a machine line survey. Runtech manufactures custom-made solutions for each customer, helping them to reduce the energy costs and improve runnability in the most efficient way. Each mill and machine is different and has to be examined to get the best possible outcome.
What is valuable to apprehend is that our solutions are also reducing CO2 emissions, which is a very important factor to take into account. Many end customers are choosing suppliers based on what is the carbon footprint of the product.
The long-term Runtech plan is to have skilled sales, project, and service people present in India locally. We have started recruitment process and hopefully we will find the right candidates to serve our customers already during 2024.
