PJL-29

A.Celli Paper, profile of a company growth

A.Celli Paper is an entrepreneurial entity born in Lucca, present on the world paper market with high range technological products and solutions. In particular, the company specializes in the production of Crescent Former Tissue Machines, complete turn-key systems and rewinders for tissue and paper.

Perini Journal

A.Celli Paper was born in 2003 when cousins Mauro and Alessandro Celli, today respectively President and Vice President, decide to “remodel” the family-owned company – historical A.Celli S.p.a. founded by Alvaro Celli in 1946 – and create two distinct companies, A.Celli Paper S.p.a. and A.Celli Nonwovens S.p.a., each of the two focusing on the market field in which they have long-standing consolidation: the former on the tissue and paper market, the latter on the nonwovens market.

This growth process set the bases for the creation of the Celli Group, allowing the two companies to develop strongly, both in terms of visibility and of results. “Further specializing the two companies into paper and nonwovens, creating a specific company for each has immediately constituted a winning choice,” affirms Engineer Giuseppe Antonini, Managing Director of Celli Paper. “In 2003, the company had a turnover of about 17 million Euro. Today, this figure is around 65 million Euro and our order portfolio for 2007 is of around 70 million. Hence, a clear confirmation of the validity of our strategy. In a very short time we have totally changed our market approach, passing from a culture totally oriented towards mechanical production, to one of center of excellence and knowledge, finalized at guaranteeing our customers the best results in terms of performance, quality and therefore optimization of their investments. We help our customers grow in quality and productivity. Our motto is “better one less machine than one less customer.“ This relationship based on close partnership is a confirmation of our choice: more and more customers are placing their third repeat order with us, both for tissue machines as well as rewinders. For example, in China, we have already supplied eight Maxi rewinders to the Nine Dragons group, and another six are scheduled for delivery between 2007 and 2008.”

A success deriving also from the choice to consolidate internally all the fields necessary to supply customers with turn-key products. Some years ago, Celli decided to implement the company’s mechanical tradition through the collaboration of highly specialized people coming from the world of Beloit, undisputed center for technological excellence. “And today our team,” continues the CEO, “is 50% comprised of engineers and structured in a series of divisions highly specialized in electronics, automation and design. In few words, the company has the internal competence to offer an excellent product and turn-key projects.”


“WORKING ON TURN-KEY PROJECTS,” EXPLAINS ENGINEER IVO OLIBANO, THE NEW SALES & CUSTOMER CARE DIRECTOR AT CELLI, “IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FOR US. It allows us to follow every project with a longitudinal continuity that offers customers the maximum guarantee of the final result. There is an emerging market and a large segment of customers who cannot plan for a too distant future. Many new producers need to make investments and projects that are calibrated on possible and probable growth in their market. Answering this type of clientele with a complete “tailor-made” product undoubtedly constitutes an important element that sets the bases for solid and long-lasting collaboration. Today,” continues Olibano, who arrived at Celli in 2003 after a long working experience in Beloit as responsible for design projects, “A.Celli Paper stands out as a flexible company, young and dynamic that – since it has not concentrated its objective only on one market segment – is showing great flexibility in finding ad hoc solutions, not only technical but also economic, for every type of customer.

Among the points of strength that consolidate us with a wide range of customers, besides of course, the flexibility and reliability of our products and systems, is also the high design quality in our automation sector and, at the installation phase, the attention that we place at the “baby sitting” phase, entrusted to expert papermakers and designed to offer qualified and specialized customer support, from start-up all the way up to the exit from the machine of the product having the desired quality. And all this is sustained by a strong R&D activity, aimed at offering technologically advanced solutions. This is an aspect that has always distinguished the spirit of the Celli companies.

And right now, A.Celli Paper is undertaking tests for new patents that interest TMs in particular. These are aimed at simplifying and optimizing the important phases of the production process or – as in the case of the ITAD® patent – at answering the present needs of the market in terms of tissue quality and characteristics.


MAURIZIO GATTI, DIRECTOR OF THE R&D DEPARTMENT, SPEAKS TO US ABOUT THE LATEST A.CELLI PAPER PATENTS. ”The centrifugal roll for web transfer from the crescent former to the felt and the centrifugal roll for felt cleaning are among the latest innovations that we have designed and patented to improve the production process of tissue machines. The first patent concerns a new web transfer system that exploits the centrifugal force generated by the roll itself and replaces traditional transfer through pick-up shoe – the vacuum box installed inside the felt. In the Crescent Former process, traditional transfer of the web to the wire takes place through simple adhesion of the web to the felt itself. In this way, however, a portion of the fibers and in particular, the “fine” fibers follow the wire and hence pin holes appear on the finished sheet, above all at low grammages. Instead, with this new roll transfer is “positive”, and is given by the centrifugal force generated by the special cylinder, thus guaranteeing maximum transfer of the fibers on the felt (fig. 1). The result is improved final product quality. The obvious advantage of this patent is that it does not require electrical energy to generate a vacuum – as is instead required with the suction box – since it uses centrifugal force. Further advantages are also a better felt cleaning and consequent reduction of water consumption.

The second patent concerns felt cleaning and is a modification of the standard cleaning system that involves the installation of the suction boxes on the felt itself. With the new A.Celli Paper patent, the same cleaning effect is obtained by exploiting the centrifugal force of the roll. This force generates an effect equivalent to the vacuum created by the box (fig. 2). In this case, too, the great advantage of this application is the energy savings, an increasingly important theme for our customers, given the elimination of the vacuum pumps applied on the boxes. Obviously, with this process, the water that leaves the felt is collected and re-emitted in circulation.”

But the A.Celli Paper patents and innovations do not stop at aspects connected with improving the production phases of the TM.


THE GREATEST A.CELLI NOVELTY IS THE I-TAD® PATENT, designed and developed to answer the needs of producers, who are today demanding increasingly absorbent and soft tissue paper. I-TAD®, that is, Italian TAD, is a new process that finds its perfect application in wet crepe papers and consists in the application of an embossing on the web when it still possesses a sufficient humidity level to maintain the effects of this process. The result of the I-TAD® process is a product with thickness and absorbency that are clearly superior to traditional products having the same grammage, or of the same quality as a conventional product but with a consistent reduction of the grammage itself.

Mauro Celli, President of A.Celli Paper and Vice President of A.Celli Nonwovens, concludes by saying that “today the Celli group is present on the world market as a veritable problem-solver for all that concerns the realm of hygiene – from tissue to TAD, from airlaid to nonwovens. And our strategy for the future,” he adds, “is to continue to invest in consolidating our presence in the market on a global level, evaluating the various vertical and horizontal expansion opportunities. We are convinced that the dynamic nature and managerial choices of the group are at the basis of its success, and the results attained confirm that investment in human resources is the element that ensures strength and, therefore, the future and the growth of our companies.”•

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