Enhancing Paper Quality Through Integrated Data Analytics

In the fiercely competitive paper industry, consistent, high-quality paper isn’t just a goal—it’s the bedrock of profitability and customer satisfaction. However, traditional methods of monitoring paper quality often fall short, leaving valuable insights buried and costing time and money. This article explores how integrating Cross Direction (CD) profile measurements with process data can overcome these challenges, offering a smarter approach to paper production.

Why Traditional Methods Fall Short

For decades, paper quality has been monitored using visual 2D-profile maps. While effective for identifying major flaws, these maps struggle to reveal deeper, detailed information crucial for understanding quality deviations. The inability to connect these visual maps to process measurements creates a critical blind spot, making it difficult to pinpoint the root cause of paper quality disruptions. To truly master quality, robust methods are needed to manage extensive historical data and understand the impact of process variable changes on profile stability.

Decoding Profile Deviations

No two paper profiles are perfectly identical. While an ideal scan would show perfectly uniform values, real-world production always introduces some variation. The goal isn’t zero variation but rather values that are normally distributed around a set point with minimal spread. Spotting deviations from this optimal state quickly is paramount. 

Profile changes primarily fall into two categories:

• Changes in the shape of scan vectors: These range from simple slopes to complex U-shapes, S-shapes, or W-shapes.
• Changes in the statistical distribution of scan values: Analyze characteristics like mean value, deviation, distribution symmetry (skewness), and overall distribution shape (kurtosis).

Combining insights from profile maps with process data dynamics generates specific profile variation indices—metrics that signal the emergence of profile anomalies. Tracking these indices as trends allows for direct analysis alongside other process measurements, improving the ability to identify the causes of profile changes. This approach also enables efficient study of long-term trends in paper profile uniformity.

Introducing the Wedge Advantage

Trimble’s Wedge system offers a transformative solution by treating intricate profile data with the same intelligence and flexibility as any other process measurement. This advanced data analytics system empowers users to:

• Dive Deep: Freely select any time frame for study, whether it’s a single production run or a specific paper grade over months. Filter out outlier data points to ensure clear analysis.
• Characterize Deviations: Calculate distinct indices that precisely characterize and pinpoint problems within profile measurements, turning visual anomalies into actionable insights.
• Uncover Root Causes: Compare profile variation indices with process measurements to quickly identify process changes triggering shifts in CD profiles, ensuring consistently uniform and high-quality paper.

From Monitoring to Mastery

The Wedge system employs advanced pattern recognition to diagnose complex profile shapes, such as a W-shaped profile. It analyzes relevant process measurements to identify correlations that occurred concurrently with or before the profile deviation, generating a prioritized list of potential root cause candidates. The pattern-recognition tool compensates for process delays, ensuring accurate root cause identification.

This integrated methodology significantly enhances the ability to swiftly identify the root cause of paper profile problems, ensuring consistent production of uniform, high-quality CD profiles. Defined by reliability, speed, and user-friendliness, the Trimble Wedge system streamlines the diagnostic process, elevating paper quality and contributing to operational efficiency and sustained profitability.

Learn more 

If you are interested in delving deeper into the innovative methodologies discussed in this article, Trimble offers a detailed white paper titled “Improve Paper Quality by Combining Cross Direction (CD) Profile Measurements with Process Measurements.” This document provides an in-depth exploration of the techniques and benefits of integrating profile and process data. To request your copy and gain further insights into optimizing paper production, please contact wedgesales@trimble.com.