Customer Success Story / Aditya Birla, Domsjö Fabriker

Customer Success Story / Aditya Birla, Domsjö Fabriker

CUSTOMER VOICE“The alternative from Bosch Rexroth was theone that let us resume production most quickly.
We’ve had a great cooperation with them!”
Björn Vedin, CEO Domsjö Fabriker“We do everything to find a technical solution that suits the customer. In this case, we created an entirely new mounting
for the torque arm within a short time, which fitted both existing equipment and our motor,” says Andreas Söderlund,sales manager for Hägglunds solutions. Here he discusses with Domsjö Fabrikers’ maintenance manager Jan Nordlander.

Domsjö Fabriker

Success story Aditya Birla, Domsjö Fabriker

Together with its owner and customers,
Domsjö Fabriker is driving developments
towards a sustainable bioeconomy that looks
after our forests as the unique and renewable
resource they are. Domsjö refines timber raw
products to primarily cellulose, bioethanoland lignin. The company, whose production
facilities are located just outside centralÖrnsköldsvik on the “High Coast of Sweden”,
has 350 employees in Sweden and 15 in
the Baltic region. Annual turnover amounts
to SEK 2.3 billion. Domsjö Fabriker is partof the Aditya Birla Group.

Flexible solution
leads to a quick start-up
Hägglunds is a brand of Rexroth, a leading global
supplier of drive and control technologies. Hägglunds
solutions enrich a comprehensive Rexroth portfolio.

Customer Success Story / Aditya Birla, Domsjö Fabriker

Aditya Birla, Domsjö Fabriker / Customer Success Story

Rapid refurbishmentof line for cellulose washer
thanks to good cooperationand strong commitment“We’re satisfied with the Hägglunds systems wherewe have them. They’ve worked really well for us!
Jan Nordlander, Maintenance Manager Domsjö Fabriker

Domsjö Fabriker experienced two dramatic weeks when a gearbox for a drum
displacement washer for cellulose in the factory’s bleaching plant broke down.
The job of the DD washer is to ensure, through washing and bleaching, that all
pulp has the right properties prior to production. Thanks to a great team effort,
production could resume quicker than feared.

Drum
displacement
washerBRIEF FACTS

Domsjö Fabriker is a Swedish company with roots
going back to 1903. Owned by Indian Aditya Birla,
it primarily produces specialty cellulose for thetextile industry. Roughly half of the factory’s
production goes to its owner, while the other halfgoes to a host of different customers in areas
ranging from car tires to medicine production.
“We have a very good product,” says factory
CEO Björn Vedin. “If we’re not the actual leaders,
we certainly come close. Our ambition is toexpand within our main segment, but also within
other products, such as lignin and bioethanol.
Today we have a good market and a high demandfor our products following the Covid pandemic,
which, of course, made the breakdown extra
unfortunate.”
The breakdown occurred at a critical position,
since all cellulose in the factory is bleached andwashed via this production line.
“The situation affected our ability to supply
products to all customers, so getting the factory
up and running meant everything, of course,”says Jan Nordlander, maintenance manager for
the fiber line. “In dialog with the machine builder,we were working with several proposed solutions
in parallel to find the quickest way forward. Thatway was a hydraulic drive from Hägglunds, since
it required the fewest modifications to existingmechanical equipment and buildings.”
From the initial contact with Bosch Rexroth
regarding a new motor, it took approximately
one and a half weeks until start-up. In a projectrequiring the modification of existing equipment,that was fast work.
“The alternative from Bosch Rexroth was theone that let us resume production most quickly.
We’ve had a great cooperation with them! We
were at a total standstill for about two weeks. If
we had chosen a different solution, the stoppage
would have been considerably longer,” says CEO
Björn Vedin.
PRODUCTION START BEFORE THE ORDERWAS RECEIVED
Part of the reason for the record-quick delivery
was that Bosch Rexroth in Mellansel, Sweden,
began producing the Hägglunds motor before anorder was even in place.

DD washer with drum size:
4,000 x 6,000 mm
Nominal torque:
430,000 – 500,000 Nm
Nominal rotation speed:
0.8 – 1 RPM
Hägglunds clamp coupling motor:
CBM 3000 2400

“We were quickly alerted to what had happe­ned,” says Thomas Lundberg, sales manager for
Hägglunds solutions at Bosch Rexroth. “In orderto help them as rapidly as possible, we began
production immediately. These CBM motors are
coveted in the market, so we dared to take therisk in order to help a customer.”
Lundberg continues, “When something
breaks down, the first thing you might think to
do is replace the broken-down component witha new identical component. In this case, I think
the fact that we and the machine builder acted
so quickly is what made things go in our favor.
Hopefully, combined with the knowledge that

our solutions provide great additional value overtime. Our motors are very reliable, so they getused in places where stoppages must not occur.
If our customers need help, we need to be able
to offer it very quickly. That was a competitive
advantage for us in this situation.”
COLLABORATION THE GREATEST
SUCCESS FACTOR
Unanimously, Domsjö Fabriker’s representatives
point to the collaboration and commitment insolving the problem as the greatest successfactor. In projects where modifications arerequired, dialog is especially important.

“We couldn’t have pulled off this modification
at a distance,” says maintenance manager JanNordlander. “It required contractors coming hereand adapting the solution to the existing site andsize. The machine builder, Andritz, contributed
design documentation, and once we had chosena hydraulic solution in dialog with them, Hägg­
lunds was brought in. The Hägglunds designer
sat down to draw on Thursday night. On Friday
morning, the documentation for all production
was ready. Local contractors then modified andproduced the torque arm and shaft pivot. We got
these on Saturday morning, fitted them the sameday, and on Sunday we were up and running!”“The reason this went so incredibly quickly is
first and foremost our own organization,” adds
CEO Björn Vedin, “which got going the same day
and then worked day and night to bring thisabout, along with Andritz and Bosch Rexroth.
The proximity to Bosch Rexroth made thingseasier of course, and there were also many othercompanies that chipped in to get this done forDomsjö Fabriker. I am extremely proud that thiscould happen.”
EXTENDED SERVICE AGREEMENT 		AND FLEXIBLE MAINTENANCE
Now the equipment is operated in a new way– a good way, according to maintenance mana­
ger Jan Nordlander. The washing is running well,
just as it did before, and now an extended Hägg­
lunds service agreement covers its operation.
“The start-up went very smoothly and we
got up to full production straight away,” says
Nordlander. “We’ve had a Hägglunds service
agreement for a while, and now we’ve added

more pieces of equipment to it. The Hägglundspeople know our operations best and help us
to manage spare parts and the planning ofmaintenance.”
In addition to the DD washer, two washpresses in the plant are run with Hägglunds
hydraulic systems.
“We’re satisfied with the Hägglunds systems
where we have them. They’ve worked really wellfor us! The best part is that this is an operating
solution that requires little maintenance,”
Nordlander concludes.

SUMMARY
This case study of a breakdown
shows how decisive flexibility andcommitment are when it comes toachieving the earliest possible
start-up. Thanks to their highpower density and small size,
Hägglunds hydraulic drive systems
enable integration into existingmachine structures, without extensive modifications. The example
also shows the advantages of areliable, long-term solution where
the supplier offers preventive
services and local spare partmanagement.