The small town of Kaipola is north of Helsinki in the middle of the Finnish lake region. Four years ago, Voith began to manufacture calender roll covers from cotton for Finnish paper mills. Soon after the start of production, Voith was delivering entire rolls and roll covers from Kaipola to all major paper manufacturers not only in Europe, but worldwide. The most distant customer today is a paper manufacturer in Brazil

Business in the traditional roll covers developed rapidly. The 500th cotton roll cover was delivered on September 26th to a Finnish paper mill. The Voith team in Kaipola deals with the entire production of the cotton rolls, from development to manufacturing and service. Roll covers made of cotton are used on supercalenders in the production of graphic paper and specialty paper. A classic cotton roll cover consists mostly of cotton fibers, but other natural or synthetic fibers are also mixed in with them. At Norske-Skog Saubrugs, Norway, several rolls with cotton roll covers are running on three paper machines, the PM 4, the PM 5 and the PM 6.

A new development from Voith is the C-series, which is now increasingly replacing the traditional cotton roll cover. The C-series has improved cover properties, through a new formula and the addition of synthetic fibers. The C-series is ideal for paper manufacturers producing with a supercalender and wanting to operate it with traditional cotton roll covers. It was proven in numerous industrial applications that the calender roll covers in the C-series improve the paper quality. Word has gotten around about how good they are: Voith has already sold more than 60 roll covers in the C-series.//