On a visit to Voith, CEO of German Koehler Paper Group inspects the manufacturing process of the world’s largest MG cylinder


Voith’s South American headquarters, located in the Jaraguá district, in São Paulo, Brazil, welcomed Mr. Kai Furler, CEO of the German Koehler Paper Group, for a visit in the first half of December 2018. The executive came to Voith Brazil to inspect the manufacturing process of the world’s largest MG cylinder (with a diameter of 7.3 meters, weighing 180 tons), which will be shipped in early 2019 to Koehler’s mill located in the German city of Kehl.

The Koehler Paper Group, already leading the market with a variety of spe-cialty papers, will use the new paper machine with its MG cylinder to pro-duce paper for flexible packaging, aiming at replacing petrol-based packag-ing with fiber-based materials from renewable sources. The goal is to re-place plastic with paper where it is viable.

Manufactured out of carbon steel plates, the MG cylinder yields higher smoothness on one side of the paper during the manufacturing process. As Koehler’s long-standing business partner, Voith has already supplied other machines to the German paper producer.

Manufactured entirely in Brazil, the MG cylinder stands for the quality and reliability of the work carried out by Voith’s Brazilian staff, and it bears wit-ness to the capabilities of the manufacturing shop located in São Paulo, which produces components for customers worldwide. In addition to the MG cylinder, Voith Brazil’s scope of supply includes smaller, 1.8-meter diameter cylinders that will also be shipped to Koehler’s plant in Kehl.

During his visit, Kai Furler toured the entire Voith plant in São Paulo, includ-ing the Tissue Innovation Center, an industry benchmark for the develop-ment of new products.

“The visit was excellent, and the cylinder will soon be shipped to its final destination,” said Hjalmar Fugmann, President of Voith Paper South Ameri-ca. “From our side, we feel a strong sense of mission accomplished, as well as the pride of participating in another bold project like this one, which rein-forces our position as a full-line supplier for the paper industry with a focus on promoting cutting-edge technologies for our customers.”