This record represents a milestone in our history. However, it did not begin in November; it began when we aligned the right people on our team with the right people at Hergen. This result represents the alignment of purposes that go beyond records. And that gives us the strength to continue advancing in new technologies and expanding our vision of what we can be in the future. With that, we entrust our future investments to Hergen. We seek to triple our production capacity by the end of 2027, in our largest project ever. Thinking that 30 years ago we produced 14 tons in a good day at this same site, and we will reach 250 tons/day in the next 2 years is incredible. We are eternally grateful to everyone who is part of this journey, especially Emílio, William, Vilmar, and everyone on the Hergen team!
The record performance of INCAPE’s paper machine, with long periods of operation without any sheet breaks, is a direct result of a solid industrial culture, combined with strategic decisions to invest in technology, processes, and people training.
Vale destacar que a tecnologia da Máquina de Papel da INCAPE é HERGEN, fruto de uma parceria construída ao longo dos anos e baseada em confiança, engenharia aplicada e foco em performance.
This new operational milestone is also the natural evolution of the modernization carried out in 2022, when HERGEN delivered significant improvements to the paper machine, contributing to significant gains in stability, productivity, and paper quality.
Technological Evolution of the Paper Machine
Continuing this trajectory, HERGEN is delivering a new modernization package, whose design has already been completed, with equipment loading scheduled to begin this week. Installation is scheduled for the first half of 2026.
The scope of this modernization includes:
- New Headbox: Designed to ensure a more uniform CM basis weight profile, better control of the stock jet consistency and turbulence, and greater operational stability at high speeds. The new headbox creates the ideal conditions for more homogeneous sheet formation, reducing basis weight variations and directly contributing to increased paper speed and quality.
- New Former Section: Developed to operate with greater dewatering efficiency, fine-grained process control, and sheet stability from the first meters of the machine. The new forming section provides better fiber distribution, reduced defects, and greater operational robustness, which is essential to support the significant increase in machine speed.
- New Press Section: Designed to increase mechanical water removal, raising the solids content at the press outlet. This results in lower thermal load during drying, reduced energy consumption, and greater sheet stability throughout the machine, as well as contributing to direct gains in productivity and operational reliability.
This set of solutions was developed to significantly increase sheet formation stability, dewatering efficiency, and operational robustness, in addition to providing real production gains. With this upgrade, the paper machine will increase working speed from its current 300 m/min to 600 m/min, expanding production capacity from the current 31,200 t/year to 45,000 t/year in the average basis weight produced, increasing production by more than 44% and creating concrete conditions for INCAPE to surpass its own operational records.
HERGEN and INCAPE
HERGEN is proud to be part of this journey and reaffirms its commitment to developing engineering solutions that transform industrial challenges into concrete results, contributing to the competitiveness and sustainability of the Brazilian paper industry.
Congratulations to INCAPE on yet another successful chapter. May the next records come!
