ANDRITZ & Suominen – a successful partnership

International technology Group ANDRITZ and Suominen, a global manufacturer of innovative and sustainable nonwovens, have been working together successfully as business partners for the past few years.

ANDRITZ has supplied and upgraded several spunlace lines and most recently supplied a Wetlace line for production of high-quality products such as flushable wipes, baby wipes, personal care and household wipes, thus supporting Suominen in reaching its goal to be the frontrunner in nonwovens innovation and sustainability.

Over the years, Suominen has developed its production improvement plans and identified important optimization potentials. Suominen has upgraded several machines and lines to a higher performance level and decided to retrofit some of their existing spunlace lines in collaboration with ANDRITZ. This enables Suominen to maintain its excellent performance in production and the highest product quality that is key in the ever more demanding nonwoven market. Most recently, Suominen and ANDRITZ signed a service agreement for Metris Remote Assistance, which allows the Suominen equipment operators to have full online support from the ANDRITZ process experts.

ANDRITZ and Suominen also work closely together in R&D at the ANDRITZ technical centers, which host a spunlace line on industrial scale and a wetlaid pilot line. All this supports Suominen in further developing new products and meeting future demands in terms of sustainability.

Petri Helsky, President and CEO of Suominen: “ANDRITZ has been supporting us for years with our developments, allowing us to offer our customers some of the most competitive and highest quality products in the world. ANDRITZ also provides Suominen with first-class service, which enables us to produce sustainable nonwovens for our customers.”

Andreas Lukas, Senior Vice President and Division Manager, ANDRITZ Nonwoven: “Suominen is one of the world’s largest suppliers of wipe roll goods. We are proud to contribute to new generations of wipes together with Suominen. Suominen renews its trust in ANDRITZ continuously. Our worldwide service organisation assists Suominen by providing original spare parts and process support to maintain their production lines.”

International technology group ANDRITZ offers a broad portfolio of innovative plants, equipment, systems and services for the pulp and paper industry, the hydropower sector, the metals processing and forming industry, pumps, solid/liquid separation in the municipal and industrial sectors, as well as animal feed and biomass pelleting. The global product and service portfolio is rounded off with plants for power generation, recycling, the production of nonwoven and panelboard, as well as automation and digital solutions offered under the brand name of Metris. The publicly listed group today has around 27,800 employees and more than 280 locations in over 40 countries.

Suominen manufactures nonwovens as roll goods for wipes and other applications. Our vision is to be the frontrunner for nonwovens innovation and sustainability. The end products made of Suominen’s nonwoven, such as wet wipes, feminine care products and swabs, are present in people’s daily life worldwide. Suominen’s net sales in 2019 were EUR 411.4 million, and we have nearly 700 professionals working in Europe and in the Americas. Suominen’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki.