Innovation

Canfor Pulp has always enjoyed a fibre advantage. Our pulp is produced from native tree species in British Columbia’s interior, mainly white spruce, lodgepole pine and sub-alpine fir. These species thrive in the extreme climate and naturally develop long, slender and thin-walled cellulose fibres with high tensile strength. This makes them especially valuable for high-quality, lightweight printing papers, premium tissue, thin specialty papers, packaging and laminates. Roughly half, by weight, of the wood we receive is converted into high-quality premium reinforcement pulp (PRP).

We are unique among many suppliers of NBSK in that we maintain the Canfor Pulp Innovation (CPI) research centre. CPI practises open innovation, and maintains a unique network of contractors, suppliers and partners. They include world-class consultants in low consistency refining and tissue, research organizations dedicated to the development of next-generation fibre measurement and fibre products, and university researchers.

CPI delivers opportunities for continuous customer and mill improvement, helping to improve our premium quality and securing our position as a global leader in NBSK and its applications. We have found ways to adjust our refining process to reduce our energy consumption. We are also able to achieve higher tensile strengths so customers can reduce their costs by using less fibre in their paper without impacting strength and runnability.

Our global customers are producing increasingly sophisticated end products, and they need more detailed knowledge about the raw materials and how they will perform. Our Mihari Initiative, a suite of leading-edge technologies, enhances our quality assurance, and supports the need for more detailed knowledge about the raw materials and their performance.

In 2015, we implemented the Valmet Process Quality Vision system at our Intercontinental and Northwood pulp mills to improve quality control. The system identifies and records dirt and shives in the finished pulp so we can be sure the pulp delivered to customers meets our high standards. This is especially important to Canfor Pulp because many of our pulp customers are producing increasingly sophisticated products, and they depend on high-quality pulp. We are the first pulp manufacturer to use this kind of system to inspect 100% of the pulp shipped from a mill.