Finland – Technical inspection and testing services – Industrial-scale paper and board piloting services at Valmet’s Rautpohja pilot facility

THE OBJECT OF THE PROCUREMENT VTT procures industrial-scale piloting services for the development, validation, demonstration and scale-up of fibre-based products, production processes and related technologies. The services are used in VTT’s research, development and customer projects when testing at industrially relevant machine speeds, process conditions or equipment configurations is required. The procurement supports the progression of technologies and product concepts from laboratory and VTT pilot-scale validation towards industrial implementation. The piloting may include, for example, trials related to new fibre-based products, raw materials, furnish compositions, chemical applications, multilayer structures, forming concepts, pressing, drying, and other paper and board manufacturing processes. The standard piloting service includes trial planning and preparation, pilot-machine operation, standard operating personnel, process supervision, agreed pilot equipment and facilities, required utilities, standard process measurements and data collection, the trial report, a results review meeting, normal machine cleaning, safety induction and site-access arrangements. The available piloting environment enables, depending on the agreed configuration, trials involving multilayer fibre-based web structures, alternative headbox and forming configurations, different pressing and drying arrangements, and wet-end or web-based application of starch, chemicals and other materials. The procurement covers project-specific pilot trial campaigns carried out at Supplier's pilot facility. LEGAL BASIS FOR DIRECT PROCUREMENT According to the 40 § section 2(2) of the Act on Public Contracts (1397/2016), only a certain supplier can implement the procurement for a technical reason, or for a reason related to protecting an exclusive right; it shall be a further condition that there are no reasonable alternatives or substitute solutions, and that the absence of competition is not due to...