Proper installation, maintenance, and repair of your paper drying equipment are important to ensure all dryers remain in service to maximize drying capacity. In addition to maintaining the mechanical components, assessing internal drying equipment plays a vital role in dryer reliability and safety. Annual dryer inspections, an important preventative maintenance activity, ensure dryer and equipment reliability and safety and steam system efficiency. It can also help prevent catastrophic failures of equipment when done regularly and by experienced professionals. Inspections identify suspected issues from suspect sounds, flooding and high drive loads, production and speed inconsistencies, and mill policies.

TAPPI TIP 0402-16, a guideline for inspection and NDT of cast iron paper machine dryers, is an industry standard in papermaking and supports the importance of NDT to identify deficiencies and prioritize recommendations for dryer section improvements. NDT service is recommended, and in many cases required every five years. This includes visual inspection of the internal dryer and drying equipment (e.g., syphons and Turbulator^® bars) and the external surface of the dryer, ultrasonic testing to determine shell thickness and determine if there are cracked bolts, and magnetic testing for crack assessment.

Having reliable, skilled mill resources available to perform necessary preventative services of paper drying equipment is becoming more and more of a challenge and can lead to unexpected maintenance costs if delayed or not done at all. Many mills find having third-party specialists take full ownership of all dryer inspections and NDT services help ensure paper drying equipment is installed and maintained to the highest standards and inspections and NDT services are performed accurately and timely.

Below are a few things to look for when selecting a company to help you with proper installation, repair, and preventative maintenance of your paper drying equipment:

• Are the techs confined space trained?
• Do the techs have experience and knowledge of all OEM dryer equipment?
• Can the techs repair damaged equipment when discovered?
• Does the company take full ownership of all dryer inspections and NDT services?