Reel shaft and reel-up for reeling a paper web

A reel-up in a paper machine, in which paper is continuously manufactured in a coherent web that is wound onto reel shafts in the reel-up to form paper rolls, in which the reel shafts constitute reeling cores, which reel-up includes

• a stock of empty reel shafts,
• an advancement unit arranged to move the empty reel shafts sequentially from the stock to a reeling system, and
• said reeling system, including at least one unit that is mobile in the longitudinal direction of the paper machine and supports a pair of opposite engagement members each of which includes an engagement part, which engagement parts are arranged for rotatably carrying and detachably engaging the reel shafts during reeling,
• wherein each reel shaft is free of a support shaft and comprises a self-supporting, tubular sleeve substantially formed of fiber-reinforced plastic, which sleeve has an envelope surface on which the initial wrapping of the paper web shall be performed, and also an internal surface defining an axial channel in the sleeve, the axial channel terminating in axial openings at opposite ends of the reel shaft, the engagement parts being linearly mobile in the transverse direction of the paper web so as to be insertable into the axial openings during a reeling sequence, the reel shafts being arranged to receive the engagement parts in the axial openings of the reel shaft to allow formation of said detachable engagement.

A method for reeling a paper web in a reel-up in a paper machine, the method comprising the steps of:

• supplying a reel shaft to the reel-up, the reel shaft being free of a support shaft and comprising a self-supporting, tubular sleeve substantially formed of fiber-reinforced plastic, which sleeve has an envelope surface on which initial wrapping of the paper web shall be performed, and also an internal surface defining an axial channel through the sleeve, the axial channel terminating in axial openings at the ends of the reel shaft;
• engaging the reel shaft by a pair of opposite engagement members of the reel-up, each engagement member including an engagement part, the engagement parts engaging the reel shaft in said axial openings;
• accelerating the reel shaft to a rotational speed equivalent to the speed of the paper web;
• initiating a reeling sequence by wrapping the paper web around the reel shaft;
• completing a paper roll on the reel shaft while the reel shaft is held by the engagement members;
• disengaging the engagement members from the reel shaft;
• and removing the paper roll on the reel shaft from the reel-up.