Finland's forest industry has moved beyond pulp and paper, and an explosion proof mobile phone for Finland's mills has to cope with that. Metsä Group's bioproduct mills at Äänekoski and Kemi turn wood into pulp and a growing list of by-products, while UPM and Stora Enso run their own mill networks across the south and east. This page is for the mill safety, maintenance and automation teams deciding what a person may carry past the debarking line and into the recovery area. The IS-04Z1 is designed around intrinsic safety rather than a flameproof enclosure.
Launching Q4 2026 · ATEX programme in progress
A kraft mill is several differently classified areas within a short walk of each other. Wood arrives, is debarked and chipped, and makes dust, bark and fibre. Chips are cooked, and the liquor is concentrated and burned in the recovery boiler, which also generates steam and power. Lime is burned in a kiln, and pulp is dried and baled. Metsä Group's Äänekoski bioproduct mill started up on 15 August 2017, and Valmet's delivery there included the recovery boiler, pulp drying line, lime kiln and a gasification plant, with the boiler, drying line and kiln described as the largest in Europe. Metsä Group also runs the Kemi bioproduct mill in the north. UPM operates the Lappeenranta biorefinery and its mill network, and Stora Enso runs board, pulp and packaging mills across southern and eastern Finland.
A mill is a dust problem first and a gas problem second, and the two sit very close together.
Wood dust is combustible, and in chip handling and drying halls it settles on horizontal surfaces and gets disturbed by routine work. That is a dust zone question, Zone 21 where a cloud can be present in normal operation and Zone 22 where it should only occur briefly. The IS-04Z1 is designed for Zone 21, and the mill's own assessment decides which areas fall under which.
Kraft chemistry produces odorous sulphur gases, and the process also has methanol and, in the lime kiln area, gaseous fuel. These sit in different gas groups, which is the reason the design target is group IIC, the most demanding. Whether any area is classified for them is a matter for the mill's explosion protection document.
The northern mills run through deep frost, with chip piles outdoors and conveyors partly exposed. The lowest ambient temperature will be set by the certificate and published with the datasheet, and gloves are worn on every outdoor round.
UPM, Stora Enso and Metsä Group each manage their own estates. Android Enterprise enrolment keeps the IS-04Z1 inside each company's existing MDM console rather than a new one.
An operator walking from the wood yard through chip screening and conveyor galleries is moving between dust areas all shift. A photograph of a blocked chute or a hot bearing, with a position attached, goes to the maintenance planner without leaving the area.
Recovery and kiln areas are where the mill's most serious process risks sit, so a round there is highly regimented. A single enrolled handset carries the permit, the checklist and the camera, rather than a paper sheet and a radio.
Finnish mills schedule planned outages in which maintenance contractors outnumber operators for a short period. Issuing a managed handset against a named contractor, and recovering it at sign-off, is simpler than tracking mixed personal phones.
Mills run round the clock in continuous shifts, with operators on defined inspection rounds between control rooms and process areas. Planned maintenance outages bring in many contractors, and the larger groups buy maintenance services for several mills at once, so a handset policy that works across mills has more value than one tied to a single site.
What a mill's safety team asks of any piece of equipment follows from its explosion protection document: the certificate reference, the full marking, the equipment group and category, and the temperature class. We could not verify a mill-specific supplier registration scheme at UPM, Stora Enso or Metsä Group, so ask the operator's procurement and HSE teams what they require, and which mills apply it. These companies are not SAMS customers, and the IS-04Z1 has no certificate yet.
No. It is pre-launch, with ATEX and IECEx certification in progress ahead of the Q4 2026 launch and no certificate issued. It should not be taken into a classified area at any mill until the certificate covering it exists.
Wood dust is combustible and is classified in the same dust zones. The practical difference is in the group, which depends on the dust's conductivity, so the mill's assessment decides the group required. The design target is Zone 21 dust protection.
That depends on the mill's own assessment, not a general rule. Parts of a boiler plant are classified because of fuel gas, and others are not. The explosion protection document is where to check, and the handset only needs to be suitable for the zone shown there.
Tell us the site, the zone and gas group, and roughly how many handsets. The SAMS team replies by email with the datasheet and the certification schedule for Finland. The IS-04Z1 is pre-launch and certification is in progress, so there is no list price yet; indicative pricing is issued in writing against a stated quantity and site.
Tell us the zone, gas group and operator. We will send the datasheet and the certification schedule for your market.
