Instrumentation for Pulp & Paper
Pulp and paper mills need instrumentation that squeezes more steam out of every ton of fuel, documents emissions compliance, protects workers from toxic gases and keeps rotating equipment running. The core measurements are flue gas oxygen and combustibles on power and biomass boilers, stack pollutants such as mercury, fixed detection for hydrogen sulfide and chlorine, and vibration on paper machines, fans and pumps.
Mills are large, continuous operations where an unplanned shutdown or a boiler trip costs production across the entire site. Fuel is also one of a mill’s largest controllable costs, so better combustion control often pays back quickly while lowering CO and NOx.
The pulp and paper landscape in the Southeast
The Southeast’s abundant pine forests support a dense concentration of kraft pulp, containerboard, paper, tissue and fluff pulp mills. Mills operate in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia, many of them in rural communities where they are a major employer.
Most large mills run their own power and recovery boilers, often firing bark and wood residue alongside other fuels, and operate their own water and wastewater treatment. That combination of combustion, chemical recovery and continuous machinery makes mills especially instrumentation-intensive sites.
Solutions we provide
- Combustion control: LAMTEC burner management systems, flame scanners, lambda transmitters and KS1D combination probes deliver O2 trim and CO/H2 control for power boilers, including modular CO/lambda control for biomass combustion.
- Emissions and mercury: Ohio Lumex supplies continuous mercury monitors, Method 30B sorbent traps and samplers, traps for acid gases and metals, and accredited lab and field testing. See continuous emissions and mercury monitoring.
- Gas detection: Delphian fixed electrochemical detectors for H2S, chlorine and CO, plus infrared and catalytic combustible gas monitors and multipoint controllers. See gas detection systems.
- Vibration analysis: Prosig portable DATS systems for machine condition diagnostics, resonance checks and order analysis on rotating equipment. See noise and vibration analysis.
Delphian and Ohio Lumex are available in North Carolina but not Virginia within our Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic territory, while LAMTEC and Prosig are available in all Vaughn territories.
How Vaughn Associates supports pulp and paper teams
Vaughn Associates is an independent manufacturer’s representative and MANA member. Our sales engineers cover mill regions throughout the Southeast, and our Gulf Coast team brings deep emissions and analytical instrumentation experience.
- Application review: we help define fuels, flue gas conditions, gas hazards, alarm points and vibration measurement needs.
- Quote coordination: we work with factory engineers on system scope and configuration. Customers typically purchase directly from the manufacturer.
- Demos and evaluations: we arrange demonstrations, rentals or evaluations where the manufacturer supports them, which fits outage planning.
- Follow-through: we connect mill staff with factory commissioning, calibration and technical support.
Tell us about your mill on the For Engineers page or find your area sales manager on the territories page.
