One Week!!!

Wednesday marked the one week day of our wonderful Suomi trip. Here's a photo of the boys after their trip in the smoke sauna:

After a tiring night at the lake and sauna on Tuesday, our group of students woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to hop on the bus at 7:15. The bus had one extra seat on the way to the first site due to the loss of one of our fellow TREEtrippers, Audrey Cook.  She was staying behind in order to catch a flight back to United States for her sister’s wedding.  Hopefully she has a wonderful time!!

We travelled a little under two hours to the UPM Jamsankoski SC Mill which was one of the two UPM Jamsa River mills. Upon arrival at this site, we met our host Mikko Vuori along with three supervisors Mikko Aho, Timo Ahonen, and Patrik Johansson.  Refreshments were served in a conference room for us travelers as the hosts gave a presentation on UPM and the Jamsankoski mill. As some of you may know UPM owns the Madison mill where University of Maine students can co-op. The presentation was very helpful for those of us who weren’t familiar with the company.

The products of the company are split into three main groups: energy and pulp, paper, and engineered materials. The facility we visited was under the first two categories. The presentation gave an overview of the types of paper produced at the mill and their end uses.

The tour of the facility came after the presentation.  We were finally able to satiate our thirst for the small hard hats we had seen around other mills.  It was a smaller, compact form of hard hat given to each of us for the tour. The supervisors took us around the mill to the areas they were stationed. First we went to one of the two TMP areas on site.  For many of us, including myself, it was the first time we had seen a thermo-mechanical pulp operation other than in person.  We were even able to retrieve a sample of the pulp and passed it around the circle of us Mainers.

We then visited PM 6 and PM 5. PM 6 was on a scheduled shut down for maintenance.  The supervisors were able to give us helpful hints on some real life situations and problems in the mill that they had to face and said couldn’t have been learned in school, but only from experience.  I know that the paper machine tours are very valuable for both myself and others.  At the end of the tour our hosts thanked us and even complimented us on our knowledge of the papermaking process and the questions we asked.

Lunch was had in the mill cafeteria with our hosts before we left for the next site.  I have a bad habit of pouring myself a tall glass of sour milk which seems to be a favorite over here. However, I fail to realize it until I take my first sip. The infamous black sausage we had been informed about from our Aalto friends was served at lunch as well. Although I can’t say I’m a fan of the scary color, the taste of the sausage was wonderful.  I can’t say everyone thought the same.  From all of us, we would like to send our thanks to our wonderful hosts at UPM Jamsankoski.  After lunch, we hopped on the bus and travelled to our next site! It was a long trip and some of us konked out as seen below:

- Molly White