As a global research- and technology-based organization, Specialty Minerals Inc. (SMI) maintains technical facilities throughout the world. At these facilities, trained specialists employ a variety of instruments and equipment to advance the art of producing and using precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC).
From the beginning, SMI’s main laboratories and research and development facilities have been located in eastern Pennsylvania—first in Easton and later expanding to Bethlehem, about 10 miles (16 km) west of the original venue. The primary facility at Easton is the PCC Pilot Plant. Over the last several years, the Pilot Plant has been redesigned as almost totally modular. The various pieces of equipment used in PCC production-unit operations can be configured in many different ways to accommodate various batch and continuous-production schemes. The utility of the Pilot Plant is twofold. First, process schemes proposed for full-scale production can be fully tested and debugged in a controlled, pilot environment. Second, various commercial or experimental PCC products can be produced in quantities suitable for pilot or small-scale paper-machine trials and then shipped wherever needed.
What the Pilot Plant is to production and engineering design, the Specialty Minerals Research Center (SMRC) is to the understanding of PCC synthesis and application for the paper industry. Located on a campus setting in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, SMRC is home to our scientists and engineers. At SMRC, experts in inorganic synthetic chemistry, paper filling, paper coating and printing conduct research on all aspects of PCC synthesis and use in the papermaking process. From the qualification of chemical-grade lime as a raw material to the understanding of printing processes, machinery, inks, and fountain solutions, these scientists identify and solve problems that can occur when PCC is used to produce paper.
While SMRC is SMI’s headquarters for PCC Research and Development, the Specialty Minerals European Research Center (SMERC) is our international headquarters for Technical Service and Customer Support. The new Research Center in Kaarina, outside the city of Turkku in western Finland, was dedicated in 2002. The scientists and support staff at Kaarina spend much of their time advising customers on the use of PCC or preparing for or running trials.
In 2006, SMI opened a new Technology Center in Suzhou, China, at the production site of Minteq International Inc., SMI’s sister company. The Asian Technical Center (ATC) is located just north of Shanghai, in close proximity to many Asian pulp and paper mills.
In addition to investing in our own facilities staffed by our own researchers, SMI also invests heavily in collaborations on external pilot facilities. Coated papers represent a particularly attractive market segment. SMI has made significant investments in pilot coater facilities to hasten the paper industry’s move toward PCC as the coating pigment of choice. In a late 1990’s joint venture with two other companies, SMI invested in the construction of a world-class pilot coater located at Trois-Rivieres Quebec, Canada. The Centre Internationale de Couchage (CIC) is one of the world’s most advanced pilot coaters; SMI owns 42 percent of this facility. CIC operates as an independent for-profit entity with a management team and board of directors of which SMI is a member. This arrangement ensures the highest integrity of operation, fair and unbiased trials (available to collaborators and competitors alike), and the highest standards of excellence in data quality.
Besides ownership in CIC, SMI extensively uses pilot paper-machine trials at the Ciba Coating Technology Center (CTC) in Raisio, Finland, the Swedish Pulp and Paper Research Institute (STFI) in Stockholm, Sweden and the Finnish Pulp and Paper Research Institute, Oy Keskulalaboratorio Centrallaboratorium (KCL), in the city of Espoo. These world-class facilities provide extensive data from high-speed pilot paper-machine and coating trials, thus ensuring a high degree of confidence in PCC function when it is used on new machines or in new filled or coated grades.
SMI is an acknowledged research and technology pacesetter in minerals for the global paper industry. Our investments in our facilities, as well as those of other leading organizations, have been major factors in SMI’s current status. Going forward, continued investments in facilities and services will contribute to our ongoing success, as well as to the success of our clients and industry partners.
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