Arctic Paper — Mill Equipment Replacement

Client: AK Serisė UAB (main contractor) Site: Arctic Paper mill, Sweden End operator: Arctic Paper S.A. Industry: Pulp & Paper Period: June – July 2025 Services: Equipment Installation · Maintenance & Turnarounds · Industrial Welding

Context

Arctic Paper operates paper mills across Scandinavia producing graphic and specialty papers for European publishing, packaging, and office markets. Like all paper mills, their facilities run on long production cycles interrupted by scheduled maintenance outages during which worn equipment is replaced and upgrades are installed.

Pulp and paper mills are among the most technically unforgiving industrial environments for maintenance contractors. The process equipment handles hot, corrosive, chemically-active material. Downtime is expensive. The operating rhythm is continuous — crews work on mills that don’t stay off-line longer than the outage plan specifies, no matter what problems emerge mid-job.

For the summer 2025 maintenance window, Arctic Paper needed obsolete process equipment removed and new units installed at the mill. AK Serisė UAB — a Lithuanian industrial main contractor — was engaged for the delivery. MIDAS was brought in as AK Serisė’s welding and piping subcontractor for the scope.

Scope

Delivered across the June-July 2025 outage window:

• Dismantling of obsolete process equipment from its installed position
• Removal of old piping tie-ins, cuts and disconnection from existing lines
• Installation of new equipment units
• Welded tie-in piping between new equipment and existing plant lines
• Pressure testing of tie-in spools
• Handover to Arctic Paper operations

The two-month window is longer than a typical outage — it reflects the scope of equipment changeout rather than a simple repair campaign. Multiple unit replacements were integrated into one outage programme to maximize the plant’s mill-off-line time.

Approach

Paper mill outage work teaches contractors to respect the operating rhythm. Mills are continuous-process facilities. Everything about them is sized for 24/7 operation. The outage window is a narrow exception and the plant’s priority is always the same: get back into production on schedule.

Our approach at Arctic Paper:

1. Pre-mobilization — scope review with AK Serisė UAB, welder allocation to the tie-in scope, WPS matching to the piping material classes
2. Mobilization — crew on site ahead of outage start to participate in plant induction and HSE briefings
3. Execution — work integrated into the main contractor’s daily outage programme, with our welding supervisor attending daily progress meetings
4. Documentation — test pack delivered per tie-in spool on completion
5. Handover — ready for Arctic Paper commissioning on outage end

The work was executed in a live-plant environment, meaning parts of the mill were still operating during the outage. Access control, exclusion zones, and hot work permits were all structured around the active/inactive state of adjacent equipment.

Outcome

MIDAS delivered the welding and piping scope for AK Serisė UAB’s Arctic Paper equipment replacement programme within the planned outage window. The Arctic Paper campaign is the basis of MIDAS’s claim to pulp-and-paper sector experience.

The project also established the MIDAS–AK Serisė UAB working relationship. Main contractor partnerships build through delivery track record, and the Arctic Paper window was the proof point for that pairing. AK Serisė remains one of the three confirmed partner logos on the MIDAS site.

Technical summary

Related services

• Equipment Installation
• Maintenance & Turnarounds
• Industrial Welding

Related industry

• Pulp & Paper

Request a quote for a similar project

Mill outage work is a regular part of our campaign mix. If you’re planning a pulp or paper outage with welded mechanical scope, send us your window dates and scope.

CTA: Request a Quote Secondary: View all projects