PMC Centre

Name: PMC Centre
Address: Kolkata, IN
Telephone: +919804026739

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Independent Global PMC Technology Platform. We support paper mills and PMC fabric manufacturers with unbiased, end-to-end expertise.

PMC CENTRE is the world’s first independent technical platform dedicated exclusively to Paper Machine Clothing (PMC). PMC Centre is an independent consultancy specializing in Paper Machine Clothing (PMC) technology for the pulp and paper industry. With over 35 years of experience, we partner with paper mills, PMC manufacturers, and suppliers worldwide to deliver expert guidance and tailored solutions. Our collaborative approach helps clients optimize fabric selection, improve machine efficiency, reduce energy consumption, and enhance product quality and fabric lifespan. At PMC Centre, we are committed to adding value across the entire PMC supply chain—supporting sustainable growth and operational excellence for all stakeholders. Whether you are a paper mill looking to boost performance or a PMC manufacturer aiming to provide superior solutions, PMC Centre is here to help you succeed. Visit www.pmccentre.com to learn more and connect with us

14/10/2026

Episode 9 | The Fabric Was Selected. But Is It Still Right When It Arrives?

Series: PMC – The Things We Don't Talk About Date:

A fabric is selected today. But it may reach the machine two to three months later.

What happens in between?

PMC selection is normally based on the machine conditions and production requirements known at the time of placing the order.

But the fabric has a journey ahead:

Selection → Order → Manufacturing → Lead Time → Delivery → Storage → Installation

And several months may pass before it is finally mounted.

During this period, the machine or production requirements may change.

Perhaps the machine speed has increased. The basis weight has changed. A different furnish is being used. Vacuum conditions have been modified. Forming elements or operating practices have changed. Or the mill's production target is now different.

The fabric, however, was manufactured according to the original specification.

When it finally reaches the machine, we may be comparing its performance against conditions that no longer exist.

There is also the question of storage.

How long was the fabric stored? Under what conditions? Was it protected and handled appropriately?

These details can matter, depending on the fabric construction and materials.

So, when a newly installed fabric does not perform as expected, the question should not immediately be:

“Was the fabric selection wrong?”

It may be worth asking:

“What has changed between the day we ordered the fabric and the day we installed it?”

A useful practice could be to review the original selection parameters before mounting a new fabric—particularly when there has been a significant gap between order and installation.

Because the right fabric for the machine at the time of ordering may not automatically be the right fabric for the machine months later.

The selection may have been correct.

But the application may have moved on.

Small details. Big consequences.

💬 Do you review the original operating conditions before installing a fabric that was ordered several months earlier?

I'd be interested to hear how this is handled in different mills.

11/10/2026

How Long Should a PMC Really Last?

One of the most common questions when evaluating Paper Machine Clothing is:

“How many days of life did the fabric give?”

But is longer life always better?

Not necessarily.

A PMC should not be evaluated only by its days of life or purchase cost per ton.

A fabric may continue running while its contribution to machine performance is gradually deteriorating.

For example, a press felt may remain physically serviceable while changes in its structure, permeability or water-handling capability begin affecting:

- Sheet dryness

- Steam consumption

- Machine speed

- Vacuum requirements

- Runnability

- Product quality

TAPPI's PMC performance-analysis guidance makes an important point:

Maximising clothing life and minimizing clothing cost per ton can sometimes come at the expense of paper-machine performance and total mill profitability.

So what should we measure?

Instead of looking only at:

Days of Life

look at the relationship between PMC age and machine performance.

For example:

Fabric Age → Water Handling → Moisture → Energy → Speed → Production

If performance begins deteriorating significantly before the fabric is physically "dead", the economically optimum replacement point may come earlier.

Conversely, replacing a fabric simply because it has reached a certain number of days may also waste useful performance life.

The better question is:

Not “How long did the PMC last?”

but:

“How much value did the PMC deliver during its useful life?”

This changes PMC evaluation from a simple consumable-cost decision to a machine-performance decision.

And the principle applies across forming fabrics, press felts and dryer fabrics—although the relevant performance parameters will differ by position.

Days of life is a number.

Performance life is a much more useful number.

💬 How does your mill evaluate PMC life—days, cost/ton, machine performance, or a combination of these?

🤖 PMC CENTRE AI is now FREE to explore.

General AI + specialised PMC knowledge, all in one.

👉 https://pmccentreai.com

📖 More PMC technical insights:

https://pmccentre.com/blog

07/10/2026

Episode 8 | When the Machine Changes, the Fabric May Need to Change

Series: PMC – The Things We Don't Talk About

The fabric may not have changed. The machine did.

A forming fabric can run well for months and then suddenly become a problem.

The first reaction is often:

“The fabric is not performing anymore.”

But sometimes, the fabric is exactly the same.

What has changed is the machine around it.

A change in:

• machine speed
• furnish
• basis weight
• headbox conditions
• vacuum levels
• drainage elements
• forming board settings
• jet-to-wire relationship
• cleaning practice
• chemical conditions

can change how a fabric performs.

And this is where troubleshooting can become misleading.

A fabric selected for yesterday's operating conditions may not be the right fabric for today's conditions.

That doesn't necessarily mean the original fabric selection was wrong.

It may simply mean that the application has changed.

This is one reason I believe PMC troubleshooting should begin with the question:

“What has changed?”

—not simply:

“What is wrong with the fabric?”

In many cases, that one question can completely change the direction of the investigation.

Small details. Big consequences.

💬 Have you seen a forming fabric start underperforming after a machine or process change—even though the fabric itself had not changed?

I’d be interested to hear what changed.

04/10/2026

More Drainage Is Not Always Better. But Why?

In the forming section, “better drainage” is often treated as a positive.

But more drainage is not automatically better drainage.

The real objective is to remove water at the right rate, at the right location and with the right degree of control—while maintaining fibre distribution, formation, retention and machine stability.

What happens when drainage is not properly controlled?

Too little drainage can lead to:

- Lower sheet solids

- Higher load on downstream dewatering

- Reduced machine speed potential

- Increased vacuum demand

But too aggressive or poorly controlled early drainage can also create problems:

- Fibre redistribution

- Formation deterioration

- Retention changes

- Increased sensitivity to furnish and headbox conditions

- Unstable sheet structure

This is why forming fabric selection cannot be considered independently from the forming section.

The result depends on the interaction between:

Headbox → Jet velocity & angle → Forming fabric → Foils/dewatering elements → Vacuum → Machine speed → Furnish & chemistry

A fabric with high drainage capability may perform extremely well in one application and create problems in another.

So perhaps the better question is not:

“How much water can we remove?”

but:

“How much water should we remove—and where?”

This is where modern forming-section optimization is heading: controlled dewatering rather than simply maximum dewatering.

And increasingly, the answer requires measurement and analysis—not just fabric specifications.

What is your experience?

Have you ever seen a forming fabric with more drainage actually produce a worse overall result?

🤖 PMC CENTRE AI is now FREE to explore.

General AI + specialised PMC knowledge, all in one.

👉 https://pmccentreai.com

30/09/2026

Episode 7 | The Cheapest Fabric Can Be the Most Expensive Choice

Series: PMC – The Things We Don't Talk About

"Can you give us a lower-priced fabric?"

It's a perfectly reasonable question.

PMC is a significant operating cost, and every mill wants to control costs.

But there is another question worth asking:

What does that fabric cost the mill beyond its purchase price?

Suppose a lower-priced fabric:

• reduces drainage slightly,

• requires more vacuum,

• needs more frequent cleaning,

• causes a small reduction in machine speed,

• or delivers a shorter useful performance period.

None of these may look dramatic on their own.

But multiply a small loss by thousands of tonnes of production, and the economics can change completely.

The purchase price is easy to see.

The cost of lost performance is much harder to see.

That's why I have always believed that PMC selection should be evaluated against the total value delivered to the machine, not simply the price on the purchase order.

A fabric costing 10% more may sometimes be the more economical choice.

And a fabric costing 10% less may sometimes be the more expensive one.

The difficult part is knowing what is what before the fabric goes onto the machine.

💬 When comparing two PMC options, what do you think should carry more weight: purchase price, fabric life, or total machine performance?

I'd be interested to hear how paper makers and PMC professionals look at this.

27/09/2026

PMC Technology Update 2026: Sustainability, Eco-Friendly & Measurement:

Paper Machine Clothing technology continues to evolve beyond traditional objectives such as fabric life, permeability and dewatering.

Recent developments in 2026 indicate a broader focus on performance stability, controlled dewatering, energy efficiency, sustainability, eco-friendly materials and measurement across the three major PMC sections.

What is changing?

1. Forming is moving beyond simply maximizing drainage. Current developments increasingly focus on controlled dewatering while balancing formation, retention, cleanliness, stability and fabric life.

2. Press felts are increasingly being designed for stable performance throughout their operating life, with new constructions targeting dewatering, runnability and lifetime performance. Seamed felts are also evolving into high-performance solutions rather than being viewed primarily as installation alternatives.

3. Dryer fabrics are now being developed with environmental impact as an additional performance consideration, including lower-carbon materials while maintaining established performance characteristics.

4. Sustainability & Eco-Friendly PMC: Sustainability is also moving beyond the fabric itself.

Developments in bio-based and recycled raw materials and at the same time, used forming fabrics and press felts are increasingly being considered as recoverable materials rather than waste.

5. Measurement: At the same time, measurement is becoming increasingly important.

The 2026 TAPPI Forming Section Monitoring publication covers parameters including fabric thickness, air permeability, tension, drainage, formation, foil geometry, headbox jet velocity and other machine variables.

The Bigger Picture

PMC does not operate in isolation.

Actual performance depends on the interaction of:

Fabric + Machine + Furnish + Chemistry + Operating Conditions + Measurement

This systems approach is becoming increasingly important for fabric selection, troubleshooting, optimization and lifecycle management.

And this is where specialised AI can potentially add another dimension.

PMC CENTRE AI is being developed as a technical companion for PMC learning, day-to-day technical questions and structured troubleshooting—helping engineers organise information, identify missing data and explore technical possibilities.

For Paper Mills and PMC Mills, the same concept can be extended through customised Enterprise AI, built around their own technical knowledge, operating practices and requirements.

📖 Read the full Blog: https://pmccentre.com/blog

🤖 Explore PMC CENTRE AI free: https://pmccentreai.com

💬 Which area will have the greatest impact on PMC performance in the coming years—Sustainability, Eco-Friendly Materials, Measurement, or AI-assisted technical analysis?

23/09/2026

Episode 6 | Why a Longer Fabric Life Is Not Always a Better Result

Series: PMC – The Things We Don't Talk About

A fabric runs for 100 days.Another runs for 140 days.

Which one performed better?

The obvious answer is:

The 140-day fabric.

But I'm not always convinced.

Fabric life is important. Nobody wants unnecessary PMC changes.

But what happened during those additional 40 days?

- Did drainage remain stable?

- Did retention remain consistent?

- Did the machine maintain its target speed?

- Did energy consumption increase?

- Did cleaning become more demanding?

- Did sheet quality gradually change?

A fabric that remains physically usable for longer is not necessarily delivering the best overall machine performance.

This is something that can easily be missed when fabric life becomes the main performance indicator.

PMC performance has to be considered over the entire operating period, not simply the day the fabric is finally removed.

Sometimes a fabric with a shorter life may have delivered:

better drainage + higher speed + more stable operation + better sheet quality

and therefore created greater value for the mill.

So perhaps the better question isn't:

"How long did the fabric run?"

but:

"What did the fabric deliver while it was running?"

That's a very different way of looking at PMC performance.

💬 In your experience, what should matter more when evaluating fabric performance: maximum life or total value delivered during the run?

I'd be interested to hear different perspectives from paper makers and PMC professionals.

20/09/2026

Hard Work Built PMC. Smart Work with AI Can Take It Further.

For decades, learning Paper Machine Clothing meant doing the hard work for long time.

Years in manufacturing. Years beside paper machines.

- Hundreds of trials.

- Failures.

- Corrections.

- Discussions with paper makers.

And sometimes… simply learning the hard way.

That hard work created the practical PMC knowledge we have today.

But there is a problem.

A large part of that knowledge remains inside the experience of individual people.

When an experienced engineer retires, changes industry, or simply isn't available when a problem occurs, years of accumulated knowledge can become difficult to access.

This is where I believe smart work can make a difference.

Not by replacing experience. By making experience more accessible.

Today, a PMC professional can use AI to:

• Explore a technical question at any time

• Work through a troubleshooting problem step by step

• Understand interactions between machine conditions and PMC

• Learn unfamiliar PMC concepts

• Analyse possible causes before taking action

And for a paper mill, the opportunity goes even further.

A customised Enterprise AI can potentially bring a company's own technical knowledge, operating practices, historical experience and troubleshooting methodology into an accessible technical system for its engineers.

That changes the equation:

Hard work → Experience → Knowledge

becomes

Knowledge + AI → Faster learning → Better decisions

The future isn't about choosing between experienced engineers and AI.

It's about allowing experience and technology to work together.

💬 What do you think?

Where can AI save the most valuable time in PMC—learning, troubleshooting, analysis, or decision-making?

I'd be interested to hear from paper makers and PMC professionals.

🔗 Explore PMC CENTRE AI:

https://lnkd.in/d2JQHCuM

🔗 PMC CENTRE Technical Resources:

https://lnkd.in/gcHJj-bf

16/09/2026

Episode 5 | The Day a Higher CFM Didn't Solve the Drainage Problem.

Series: PMC – The Things We Don't Talk About

A forming fabric is showing poor drainage.

The first thought can be quite logical:

"We need more permeability."

So a higher-CFM fabric is considered.

It is installed.

And the expected improvement doesn't happen.

Why?

Because air permeability is not the same thing as machine drainage.

Drainage through a forming fabric depends on much more than the fabric's permeability value.

It is influenced by:

• Fabric structure

• Fibre support

• Stock characteristics

• Machine speed

• Vacuum levels

• Drainage elements

• Forming conditions

• Retention and chemistry

A higher CFM can be useful in the right application.

But increasing one number does not automatically solve a system problem.

This is one of the lessons that can be difficult to learn from a specification sheet.

The machine does not operate on one PMC parameter at a time.

Everything interacts.

And that is why a fabric with a lower nominal CFM can sometimes deliver better practical results than a higher-CFM fabric on a particular machine.

The question shouldn't simply be:

"Can we increase CFM?"

It should be:

"What is actually limiting drainage?"

💬 Have you ever seen a change in fabric permeability fail to produce the expected machine result? What did you eventually discover?

13/09/2026

The Four Forming Section Pain Points That Continue to Cost Paper Mills Money:

After decades in the Paper Machine Clothing industry, I find it interesting that many forming section problems remain remarkably consistent.

The machine may run. Production may continue. Quality may appear acceptable.

Yet hidden losses continue every day.

- Increased energy consumption.

- Lower retention.

- Higher chemical demand.

- Reduced machine speed.

- Shorter PMC life.

The question is not whether these issues exist.

The question is why they continue to occur despite being well understood.

From my experience, four areas continue to create the greatest challenges.

1. Drainage Imbalance: Most mills monitor drainage. Fewer fully give importance to how drainage changes across the machine width, through the forming zone, and over the life of the fabric.

Small imbalances can gradually affect formation, retention, drying load, and machine efficiency.

2. Fabric Contamination: Contamination rarely appears overnight. It develops progressively through fillers, fines, stickies, pitch, and process deposits.

By the time contamination becomes visible, machine performance has often been affected for weeks.

3. Vacuum System Optimisation: Vacuum systems are frequently adjusted to address symptoms. However, vacuum performance cannot be separated from fabric design, furnish characteristics, drainage behaviour, and operating conditions.

More vacuum is not always better vacuum.

4. Fabric Selection and Application: A forming fabric may be technically excellent and still fail to deliver optimum results. Success depends not only on the fabric itself but also on how well it matches machine conditions, furnish characteristics, production objectives, and operating practices.

The common theme behind all four challenges is interaction.

No forming section problem should be evaluated in isolation.

Machine conditions, furnish, chemistry, vacuum, drainage, and PMC design continuously influence each other.

This is why effective troubleshooting requires more than data.

It requires structured analysis and understanding of the complete system.

That philosophy also guides the development of PMC CENTRE AI.

Many paper makers now use it as a day-to-day companion for PMC questions, troubleshooting support, technical learning, and independent guidance.

For organisations seeking deeper integration, PMC CENTRE Enterprise AI can also be customised around a mill's own knowledge, operating practices, and technical requirements.

💬 In your experience, which of these four areas creates the greatest hidden cost in paper production?

🔗 PMC CENTRE AI:

https://pmccentreai.com

🔗 Technical Articles & Resources:

https://pmccentre.com/blog

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+919804026739

Website

http://www.pmccentre.com/

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