2 Water for life requires inventiveness I Daio Paper Mishima ... - Voith

twogether:
Let's take an example. With the size
200, Voith has standardized paper
machines with a width of 5.85 m.
Do you see a global trend towards
smaller machines?
Kurt Brandauer:
We see that the “bigger, wider, faster“
trend doesn't meet the customers'
needs in all markets. Precisely in
India, southeast Asia and eastern
Europe, the market calls for smaller
machines. First of all, the financial
resources there are often limited, and
secondly, in some circumstances the
local market doesn't absorb more
than 200,000 tons per year.
We have taken these basic conditions
as a reason to develop the size 200.
We want to be able to offer every
customer a machine that gives the
customer a minimum of specific
investment costs – regardless of
whether 200,000 or 600,000 tons
per year are required.
twogether:
Can you – at a customer's request –
nonetheless build a paper machine
that deviates from the standards and,
for example, produces newsprint at
a width of 6 m and a speed of
2,000 m/min?
Kurt Brandauer:
Of course we can build machines
that deviate from our standards.
But we are of the opinion that with a
machine of the size 200, 400 or 600,
our customer gets the optimal machine
regarding efficiency and minimal
investment costs. Solutions that
deviate are possible in principle, but
as a rule more expensive.
twogether:
In many industries one sees that
along with the main product line,
suppliers maintain a low-performance,
cheap product line under
another brand name.
What is Voith's view of this product
policy?
neW PLAnTs
Kurt Brandauer:
We have very consciously decided
against such a policy. With us, all
customers get a product line that
meets the highest quality standards.
The name Voith stands for outstanding
quality and reliability of our
machines. Regardless of whether a
customer purchases a newsprint
machine of the NP 200 or NP 600
size – the customer can expect the
same quality, both regarding our
machines and systems and also
regarding paper quality. We make
no compromises with quality.
26 I 2008 I Voith Paper I twogether 17