South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (Xamk) calls for tenders about industrial pulp washing equipment for research purposes. The procurement will be made from project “RRF FIBEX Research infrastructure for the digital and green transition of fiber products and biocircular economy”. The project is funded by Business Finland from the Sustainable Growth Programme for Finland from the EU Recovery Plan ‘Next Generation EU’.
In the fiberline process, washing technology is a highly critical process step because it separates cooking chemicals, lignin residues and waste water fractions into energy production, upstream washing water and further into various waste water fractions. The washing research equipment acquired at Xamk Fibre Laboratory is used for mechanical engineering, material engineering and chemical process research. For example, more efficient bleaching and new bleaching concepts and chemicals need a research environment for the washing phase.
As a research environment for washing and MC technology, a near-industrial-scale research platform will be built at Xamk FibreLaboratory to produce the washing technology needed in fiberlines and the related separate process phenomena, materials and knowledge base needed for smart solutions. The FIBEX project develops a research platform related to the fiber material washing process and technologies at Xamk's FiberLaboratory, serving a wide range of research in technology, materials, smart technology and chemical process engineering in Finnish industry.
The washing technology research platform enables industrial cooperation with machine technology, process technology, material technology and information technology companies in the following subsystems:
- Lightening of product structures: drum-like structures, blocks, tray-like structures, casting replacement, hole/chip plate innovations, filter element manufacturing and material innovations, 3D printed products and their research under process conditions
- Optimization and behaviour of the supply and distribution of washing water, flow engineering research
- MEMS sensors that observe flow technology in real time and are connected to intelligent automation and their usability under industrial-scale process conditions, radical sensor innovations)
- optimizations to improve the usability and performance of the device in process and flow engineering
- connection of sensors to machine components and functional testing of sensors
- measurement and IoT applications with different technologies
- study of the displacement process with accurate sensors of the amount of input and displaced filtrate
- research on the behaviour of different raw material and pulp grades, research at managing and enhancing displacement phenomena with different raw materials
- technological research for washing technology for chemical processing of recycled textiles (fibre suspension, after acid and alkali cooking) and waste water load minimisation
- Study of chemically recycled/treated textile fibre washing in terms of fibre length and suspension consistency
- impact of the chemical state of the washing water, such as pH, on the process and equipment performance
- study of the precipitation management of bleaching stage equipment
- research on wash bleaching, e.g. catalytic bleaching - infrastructure combines Xamk Fiber Laboratory's cooking reactors + washing + more efficient filter treatment processes in existing and future plants
- research into the potential of 3D printing technology in the process and equipment environment -
testing and development of sealing elements and sealing materials
The washing research equipment will be acquired as a complete set of equipment installed on the washing platform of Xamk FiberLaboratory. The equipment includes the following subsystems assembled and tested:
* Rotating drum structure (2mx3m) with modular outer ring (various outer ring structures can be changed) and related U-gauge modules.
* Block-like perimeter structures around the drum that are at least partially modularly interchangeable or can be connected to various mass supply, wash water distribution and water separation sealing modules.
* Equipment to enable the recovery of washing/bleaching filtrates at various washing stages and to equip the equipment with filtrate valves for filtration housing modules e.g. for wastewater research
* Bearing
* Bearing blocks
* Support beams
* Foundation beams (4 pcs)
* Gear Brevini SC3500
* Modules of Seal element assembly
* Sealing water and instrument air system/modules
* The weight of the entire equipment is about 55 t, with research masses about 65 t.
The equipment must be installed by 30.11.2025.
Detailed manufacturing drawings of the equipment are available. The company planning to submit a tender can request drawings from Xamk (
lasse.pulkkinen@xamk.fi). Xamk will then give the contact information of a specialist company Oy Finnsampo Ltd. Finnsampo will send a temporary download link for the tenderer. If necessary, Finnsampo will provide technical advice on reading drawings by e-mail.