KINLEITH

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 55, 4 February 1953, Page 2

KINLEITH

Closely allied with hydro-electric development schemes on the Waikato River is the next largest construction job in New Zealand, Kinleith Pulp and Paper Mills project. Few people in this area can envisage what is actually being accomplished at this new industrial capital of Tokoroa, so a few facts ancl figures on the industry might be perrnissable. We all know that we live in the centre of the Pinewood area but are not concerned with how it will provide this country with a majca- secondary industry. Most of us prefer to think that pinus insignus timber will be the means of supplying us with a sufficiency of building boards but few know that the industry to be established will utilise every vestige of the pine tress except the rustie of the branches in the wincl. It has been the custom of timber men to select large trees and the process of transporting them out of ; the bush has ruined the other smaller trees. Mechanical appliances to be installed at Kinleith will utilise de~ vices to dissolve every conceivable scrap of a tree ancl convert it into pulp, paper, boiler fuel or marketable liquid. Large trees ef course will be cut up for timber, leaving sawdust, chips, dockings and bark; but these then commence a very interesting journey that takes them by water ancl conveyors around the fiotation system until they are digested into wTorkable pulp for marketing. Probably the most interesting and heaviest revolving piece of machinery at Kinleith is the barking drum, a cylindrical drum weighing 150 tons that slowly revolves and tumbles logs inside until the bark is scraped off. These white pine logs emerge from the drum and are conveyed by rollers to a chipper wheel about 12 feet in I diameter, weighing 10 tons and rotat- 1 ing at 180 to 200 revolutions per i minute. Reaehing the chipper wheel they tip end in to the mouth of the hopper and in seconds a 10 or 15 1 feet length of undersize logs varying from 6 to 10 inches in diameter are shreclded into one inch square by about quarter inch thick chips by the keen cutter knives on the chipper wheel. A stream of chips emerges from the discharge hopper and is conveyed away to the main chip bin and on to the elevator to the massive digestors and after sealing, a digesting solution ancl steam cook the chips into a liquid not uhiike fuel oil in appearance. The problem o^ converting this liotfid devolves on the hundreds oi tons of intricate machinery and instruments that go to make up this | interesting industry. Conversion I from black liquor to pulp and paper I entails the erection of huge buildings 1 and plant not surpassed in New Zealand. Condensers, tanks, pum'ps, filteirs, washers, need 60 to 70 feet high by 70 feet wide fabricated steei buildings basea on solid foundations, I The paper mill building now nearing constructional finality is nearly as long as the Ellerslie racecourse straight being over 800 feet long, 60 feet high and 50 feet wide. Its construction opens the way for instaliation of the intricate paper making machinery which will be handled into position by an overhead travelling crane running the whole length oi the building and which lifts 20 tons. Nothing is lost in the conversion oi the pine tree a£ Kinleith. Turpentine and fuel oil is extracted, the fuel oil being pumped into the boiler furnaces in conjunction with other residues. The massive boiler house at Kinleith commands attention and a chapter could be written of this immense structure which can probably dwerf other steam power plants in this country. When the Kinleith project is of- 1 ficially opened New Zealand will rea- J lise just exactly what has been ac- : complished there, and its affinity with I hydro-electric schemes which make ! operation possible. ! In 1949 the population of Toko- j roa was 230. In June this year it 1 was over 3000. From a vacant area / in 1947 a township of 400 houses has ! been erected with the usual social 1 1 amenities provided, civic centre, /

ooxei, school, and a 171-acre ' sports park uncler construction. Tar-seal-ing of streets is now under way. Served by a railway link and sealed loactS this wonderful new industry is nere to stay. The forests are there, aua so is Kinleith, as a. nionsuer project backed by brains and capital. Watch it grow ! Kinleith Figures: Present : — Bandmill output: 180,000 boaiti feet daily. Gangmill output: 85,000 boarcl fe-et daily. Future additional output: — Kraft pulp production: 45,000 t annually for newspaper, kraft paper,, multiwall bags, wrapping, etc. Kinleith will use: — Electric motors consuming 5600 h.p. and 3000 tons steam daily. Up to 141 miilion gallons of water will be usecl daily; more than two-thirds of Auckland's supply.