preparation system and, using baffles, delivers an even, uniform flow of the paper stock onto the fourdrinier wire. A slice at the end of the headbox regulates the flow onto the fourdrinier wire. This wire is a continuous plastic or metal-woven wire belt which runs over a series of rolls, hydrofoils, and suction boxes which pull out the water. The paper web forms and partially dewaters on the fourdrinier wire and then transfers (at a point known as the couch) to the press section for further dewatering. Felts pick up

and carry the wet web through the press sections to the driers. From the drier, and if desired, the paper can enter the calender section (a series of stacked rolls which smooth the paper and impart the desired gloss or thickness to the sheet) and is then reeled up. Coated paper grades may receive additional treatment on a supercalender. The paper is then wound into a roll on a rewinder. The finished roll may go to a finishing room for cutting (cut size paper) or making into smaller rolls.3

In recent years, the twin-wire has emerged as a major modification to the standard fourdrinier table. In a twin-wire the forming distance is much shorter. The pulp slurry emerges from the headbox in a vertical upward flow. Two separate wires come together at a forming nip point as the slurry enters the nip. The web is then formed and partially drained, continuing along one of the two wires until it is picked up by a felt and transferred first to the press section and then to the dryer section. Machine speed is higher in a twin-wire, allowing greater production and better sheet formation. A highly competitive situation has arisen for twin-wire orders to rebuild existing fourdrinier tables into twin-wire machines. The leading U.S.-based producers, Beloit and Black Clawson, have each evolved several twin-wire models. Among foreign producers, Valmet (Finland) and Voith (West Germany) offer the greatest competition to U.S.-based builders.

Finishing and Converting Equipment

The industry also encompasses producers of equipment for paper or paperboard finishing and converting. This group includes machinery and equipment for bag-making, corrugated and folding box-making, and drum, can, and tube-making. Except in the corrugated box segment of the industry, firms engaged in manufacturing equipment for finishing processes such as specialized coating are generally smaller in size than firms producing basic pulp-making or papermaking machinery. The bulk of the remaining industry products consist of parts and attachments.

3 For a lay description of the industry, see Pulp and Paper Primer, TAPPI Press, Atlanta, 1983.

Newprint is produced on the above fourdrinier, manufactured by Beloit Corporation. The Twin-wire configuration shown below is a Bel-Baie III machine also produced by Beloit Corporation.

Other Industry Products

There are several industry segments outside the paper machinery industry as it is defined in the Standard Industrial Classification. These include producers of paper machinery instrumentation and controls, manufacturers of stock treatment pumps and compressors, and producers of paper machine clothing such as nonwoven felts. Other specialized equipment such as bearings, pumps, boilers, and air and water pollution control equipment, which constitute a major portion of mill construction costs, are also produced outside the SIC-defined industry.

One of the most striking technological developments in the industry has been the rise of mill-wide control systems. These systems, first widely applied in Scandinavia, are designed to control all aspects of machine operation in the mill. First introduced about 1975, mill-wide control systems spread to North America over the ensuing 10 years. Two U.S. firms, Measurex Corp. (Cupertino, California), and AccuRay, Inc. (Columbus, Ohio), have emerged as leaders in this segment of the industry. With substantial growth predicted in the area, AccuRay became the focus of a hot takeover battle in early 1987. Combustion-Engineering (C-E) emerged the winner over Hercules in the fight for AccuRay. Other leading U.S.-based participants in this industry segment include the Allen Bradley Co., Bailey Controls, Foxboro Co., General Electric,

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Honeywell, Inc., and Leeds & Northrup. Top foreign competitors include Valmet and Ahlstrom Automation (Finland), Rosemount Instruments (Canada), Scanpro Instruments (Sweden), and Siemens (West Germany).

Demographics of the Industry

According to 1982 Census of Manufactures data, 230 companies produced paper machinery in the United States in that year. This number represents an increase of 37 companies, or 19 percent over the 193 companies reported in the industry 5 years before. A total of 253 establishments were reported in the industry during 1982, an increase of 40, or 19 percent, over the 1977 total. (An establishment represents an individual plant, regardless of ownership.) These figures represent a reversal of a small downtrend in the number of companies reported in the two previous economic censuses. Half of these establishments (126) employed more than 20 persons each.

In

The industry exhibits only a modest level of concentration. 1982, the four largest establishments produced 35 percent of product shipments. The 8 largest accounted for 46 percent of shipments; the 20 biggest establishments shipped 61 percent of 1982 product shipments; and the top 50 establishments accounted for 79 percent of all paper machinery industry product shipments.

The production of U.S. paper machinery followed the development of the U.S. paper industry. The principal manufacturers initially located and have largely remained in or near major papermaking sections of the country. This pattern facilitated delivery of the heavy industrial equipment in a largely local market. As the industry has matured and become global, producers have shown little desire to relocate plants from the small northern towns where the industry originated. Production of pulp and papermaking machinery is a capital intensive industry, and firms have sought to expand and modernize existing facilities rather than abandoning entirely the investment in a site. This has not prevented firms from closing outmoded facilities, especially foundries. The presence of plants in the older urban centers of the Northeast has tended to encourage growth in nearby suburban and rural communities. Few new facilities have been built in the South. Corporate headquarters have remained in existing locations, unlike the paper industry which has recently relocated several headquarters into Fairfield County, Connecticut. Even in locating foreign facilities in Canada and the United Kingdom, firms have preferred to locate in mid-sized industrial towns away from the largest metropolitan areas.

Among U.S. states, Wisconsin has long styled itself "The Paper State," where production of paper machinery has gone hand-in-hand with papermaking. Concentrating in the Fox River Valley and metropolitan Beloit (including nearby parts of Illinois), Wisconsin accounts for 32 (or 12 percent) of all industry establishments and 23 (or 18 percent) of those having 20 or more employees.