Field Note: An 1,800 m/h Conversion to Ultralight
Three weeks, eight trials, one production-released formulation. The story of a line conversion.
Names changed; the line is real. A Western European plasterboard producer running a 1,800 m/h line asked us to support a conversion from a 7.4 kg/m² standard board to a 5.9 kg/m² ultralight product, with no capital changes to the line.
We spent the first week on the bench: foam-stability mapping of three candidate surfactant pairs against the customer's water and stucco. The second week on the line at reduced speed: hydration-curve calibration, knife trials. The third week at full speed: paper-bond verification and kiln tuning.
Trials 1–3 failed at the knife. Trial 4 produced an acceptable board but with edge cracking on tapered profiles. Trial 5 corrected the cracking with a small retarder shift. Trials 6–7 verified at full speed. Trial 8 was a 24-hour run for production qualification.
Final formulation: long-side-chain PCE at 0.21% bwoc, paired SLS/AOS foam (60/40), migratory starch raised from 0.45% to 0.62%, accelerator dose raised 18% to recover set. Kiln equalization extended by 40 s of effective residence. Reported gas burn reduction: 6.4% versus the legacy product.
We do not always get there in three weeks. We always get there.