The setting-up time for printing presses can be reduced, due to new technology from PIAB. Fast-reacting, quiet and environmentally-friendly compressed air driven pumps can be used throughout the printing process, and in post press operation, according to the company. The quicker processing and more efficient press usage lead to increased profitability.

Europe's biggest forest industry concern, Stora Enso, is launching the new Performa CTMP product family on the market this summer. CTMP combines the best properties of folding box board (FBB) and Solid Bleached Sulphate board (SBS), thus creating a completely new category of packaging board to meet market demand. The new boards have been developed especially for packaging products that are sensitive to tainting. Thanks to its structure Performa CTMP is expected to bring savings of 10-20% for the packaging industry compared with conventional packaging materials states the company.

Receives US$15 Million Equity Financing Investment from Pequot Capital Management

Injection moulded polymer magnets from Sura Magnets AB of Sweden, instead of conventional metal magnets. This is the material that turned out to be the optimal solution in the manufacture of Alfa Laval Agri's revolutionary design for a new type of electronically-controlled pulsator to control the pulsed vacuum in milking machines. The final design is also an interesting example of an unusual manufacturing approach taken by a particular group of companies called PB Option. From an idea to a completed unit produced by multi-component moulding in one single process.

KONE ECO3000 is the first escalator developed using the combined know-how and experience of three of the world's leading escalator companies. Ideal for retail and commercial buildings as well as airports, the new design achieves new levels of energy efficiency, space savings, reliability and aesthetics.

Swedish manufacturer HDD has developed a completely new line of servomotors that are four times smaller and weigh just a third of what regular motors do. They emit less heat than previous motors and take up very little space. They come standard with a resolver and can be optionally equipped with high resolution feedback, in compliance with both SinCos and EnDat standards.

Stora Enso is the first packaging board manufacturer in the world to acquire a Xeikon digital printing machine for board packaging for its research centre in Imatra, Eastern Finland. Testing of digital printing on the different grades of board was started on company's printing machine in February 2000. The digital printing machine was supplied by Stora Enso's long-term cooperation partner Xeikon N.V. of Belgium.

Cellular phone technology is making it more cost-effective to open an automatic door. This is more secure than giving out keys or ID cards ("smart cards", transponders or escort memory) to each person who is authorised to enter. Above all, administration and maintenance are made easier. A new technique for communicating low bandwidth data via the Internet and the mobile telecommunications network is enabling this technology to be offered by door manufacturer Allhabo AB, a subsidiary of the Swedish public company, Cardo Door Group. The telematics of the system, i.e. the communication between one machine and another, have been developed by Unwire AB, a leading company in electronics and GSM technology. The police have also become interested in the prospects this application offers for better authorisation control.

A GSM server that can call for pickup when a rubbish container is full or for service in case of technical error. This is now reality, in the wake of successful testing of a GSM-equipped rubbish compactor located at a Swedish Coca-Cola factory. Ragnsells, a refuse collection company, hopes that this spells an end to unnecessary transports and service calls for half-empty containers. With thousands of containers its service area, the company also expects significant environmental benefits through fewer, better-planned transports. The technology is now being introduced onto the international market by the company's development partner, Unwire AB, specialists in telematics and positioning.

In industrial pulp and paper processes, the consumption of fresh water can be reduced by employing counter current water flow arrangements and efficient water separation between the various process stages. The effluent from the processes will then be highly concentrated, but by utilising new evaporation technology, significant cost savings can be achieved. Two evaporation methods, mechanical vapour recompression (MVR) and multi-stage evaporation (ME), are applied to the evaporation process. The operational costs for multi-stage evaporation are low, since low-grade surplus heat from pulping and stock preparation can be used as an energy source. The system is marketed by Hadwaco Ltd Oy of Finland and Andritz AG, who recently signed a co-operation agreement.