Kadant Seminar

Yesterday, Team Blandin attended an all day seminar in Grand Rapids at the Sawmill Inn. The seminar was put on by Kadant. The seminar was about ways to optimize the dryer section. This was a great opportunity for the five of us in so many ways.

First of all we learned so much about the drying system. This was a very technical seminar and we were able to relate many of the processes to our learning competencies. Some of the things we learned were how heat is transferred through the dryer cans, how steam flow throughout the drying process, and then ways to reduce steam usage in the drying process. We learned much more but these were the three things that stuck out in my mind and related mostly to our project. This seminar also laid a great foundation for what we need to do to complete our project.

Second, we attended a conference with thirty other engineers who work in paper mills in northern Minnesota (Sappi, Blandin, Boise, and New Page). This allowed for us to visit and network with them. One question we received was if we were interested in working in paper mill and of course I answered yes. These companies would all be great places to work at. This opportunity allowed us to get some personal exposure to the industry.

Another question that we got from many of the engineers was what our program was like. This was a perfect opportunity to explain how Iron Range Engineering worked and get word of the new program out. All in all this day benefited our team in many ways.