“A chip from the Sulzer pump factory in Kotka!”  

Sirpa Valimaa got into Tampere as a "flower farmer" to study for a Master of Science degree.  

"That's what we were called there. In the late 1990s, the then technical university was looking for social, outgoing students who could chat and perhaps also know how to market. Based on two days of aptitude tests, I ended up in the mechanical engineering program. So me, a newly graduated humanist who had chosen the shortest possible mathematics, physics, and chemistry in high school."  

Before his current job, Välimaa's actual career has been mostly at Stora Enso. It has been packed with, among other things, packaging design, showroom management and marketing, innovation, the planning, start-up and operation of dissolving pulp production, and a variety of pulp-related product development.  

However, his current job is in the equipment manufacturing sector. Välimaa started as head of the Pulp, Paper and Board business at pump manufacturer Sulzer in November 2023.  

"I've been asked that. Why on earth pumps for Sulzer and why machinery and equipment in general. However, I've always been quite experimental by nature and I guess even brave. I think I'll be fine."  

According to Välimaa, working for an equipment manufacturer has its advantages. Partly because it's nice to work in a factory for a change.  

“I used to work at the head office for a long time. Now, after years, I was able to return to the factory to work on the equipment, and it is close to my heart.”  

Pumps for process needs 

Sustainable development is shaping the operating environment of the forest industry today.  

“Innovation and the start-up business activity developing around the entire industry is vibrant. All forest companies also have their own new projects. Stora Enso has lignin and Tree to Textile, UPM has Leunan biochemicals and Metsä Group has Kuura and Muoto, for example.”  

The continuous development of production processes is also shaping the cooperation between equipment manufacturers and the forest industry. In conditions of resource scarcity and new types of processing efficiency, the need for, for example, better utilization of production side streams is a significant factor that tightens cooperation.  

“In addition to side streams, we also process various agri-masses and textile fiber recycling,” Välimaa reminds.  

The raw material must flow and pumps are always needed for this.  

“We are also developing a completely new business in Kotka. We are involved in many interesting projects. They are related to the various media supplied to us by our customers, which should be made to flow, mix, homogenize in the process, or the composition of the media should be changed. Examples include foam technology, nanocellulose and microcrystalline cellulose, lignin or seaweed. There is a huge amount of everything new to process these days, you name it.”