The stakes are high regarding fire safety at Essity’s largest UK facility, Prudhoe. This sprawling 50-acre site plays a crucial role in the company’s operations.
Home to two massive papermaking machines and seven converting lines, this paper mill produces over 100,000 tonnes of finished tissue annually. Employing around 400 people, Prudhoe’s scale and complexity ranks among the top five paper mills within Essity.
Sustainability is also deeply integrated into Essity’s operations, with its on-site recycling plant processing over 60,000 tonnes of wastepaper annually. This closed-loop system is vital for Prudhoe and supports Essity’s other UK sites, making resource efficiency a core component of the mill’s success. Given the importance of keeping the operations going smoothly, fire safety measures are critical.
But how do you ensure that all necessary systems are in place? How do you eliminate any blind spots? For Essity, the solution was 3D mapping, and that’s when they partnered up with Micropack, a subsidiary of the Consilium Safety Group.
The primary goal was to minimise the risk of a large fire breaking out in the wastepaper yard, explains Simon Hobson, Technical Safety Leader at Essity.
” The yard’s expansive size and outdoor setting posed challenges many traditional systems couldn’t address. Early detection is essential to containing any fire in its initial stages”, he states.
A consulting division team from Micropack visited the Prudhoe plant to conduct a comprehensive flame and gas mapping study. The process involved assessing the area, determining the number of detection units required, and identifying the optimal locations for installation.
Simon Hobson at Essity states that 3D mapping was a great help, and in the end ensured comprehensive coverage of the wastepaper yard.
“Creating a 3D map helped us visualise where the detection systems were needed. You collaborate with a team that guides you through potential improvements,” says Simon Hobson and continues:
“Our systems now offer over 90 percent rapid and reliable coverage of the areas they protect, even in harsh operational conditions where other detection systems may fail”.
Following a successful collaboration Essity engaged Consilium to draft the entire proposal. This included detectors, systems and panels as well as ensuring a reliable third party would install the systems.
“This project shows the strength of Consilium’s offer. That we can help our clients through the full process, operating together on a global scale. This clearly shows the potential when different parts of the Consilium family work together”, says Graham Duncan, Managing Director at Micropack.
And the results of the collaboration have been highly effective for Essity as well.
“Since the installation, we have experienced zero unwanted alarms and no faults with any system components. These systems ensure safe and reliable production and reduce the environmental impact from fire-related by-products and waste,” says Simon Hobson.
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