Koehler Paper celebrates anniversary as production line 2 hits milestone

Paper Solutions

Koehler Paper has the opportunity to celebrate an unusual birthday at the end of this year. Its production line 2, consisting of papermachine 2 and coating machine 2, was put into operation at the Kehl site at the end of 2001 and has now played a part in the Oberkirch based family run enterprise’s success story for a good 20 years.

Papermachine 2 is used exclusively for the production of thermal paper. With a length of 123 metres, the machine is longer than a football field. It is also the fastest thermal papermachine in the world, and is known for coupling its speed with consistent quality. This all makes it possible to use it to produce more than one million checkout rolls a day, with these slips being found everywhere across the world.

Papermachine 2 is the reason why Koehler Paper is so successful in the thermal paper market, as it enabled the company to produce lightweight thermal paper with grammages of less than 50 g/m2. ‘Koehler pioneered lightweight thermal paper for point of sale with grammages of 48 g/m2 and less – that transformed the market. Truth is, the machine was predestined to make lightweight thermal paper to this very day,’ said Willy Früh, director Thermal Paper Division at Koehler Paper. ‘When we talk about thermal paper production, you could say we’ve been playing in the Champions League for 20 years now.

‘The fact that the machine keeps beating speed records time and time again and is one of the fastest off line coating machines of its time nowadays is something that we have the production line team to thank for in particular. The production line was also a guiding light for other investments at Koehler,’ added Joachim Uhl, mill director at the Kehl site.

From left to right: Joachim Uhl (mill director at the Kehl site), Joachim Fuchs (production manager for papermachine 2), Georg Streif (Kehl production coordinator), and Thomas Peter (production manager Kehl site) next to papermachine 2.