Johan Christopher Fredrik Carl Richter (12 November 1901 – 13 June 1997) was a Norwegian-Swedish

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

, industrialist and inventor in the area of pulp and paper production. He developed the continuous processes for digesting and bleaching wood pulp used by Kamyr (now part of

Andritz AG Andritz AG is an international technology group, offering plants, equipment, systems and services for various industries. The group's headquarters are in Graz, Austria. The group gets its name from the district of Andritz in which it is located ...

and

Valmet Valmet Oyj is a Finnish company and a developer and supplier of technologies, automation systems and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries. Valmet has over 200 years of history as an industrial operator. Formerly owned by the S ...

Background

Richter was born in Lier,

Buskerud Buskerud () is a former county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Ha ...

and grew up at Narvik in Nordland,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. His father had a management position at

LKAB Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag (LKAB) is a government owned Swedish mining company. The company mines iron ore at Kiruna and at Malmberget in northern Sweden. The company was established in 1890, and has been 100% state-owned since the 195 ...

, which shipped its ore through Narvik. Beginning in 1919, he went to school in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

. He graduated as a mechanical engineer Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 1924. He took on a position in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

where he worked on

turbines A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful Work (physics), work. The work produced by a turbine can be used ...

and advanced pumping equipment. In France he met and married Astri Rören (1908–1992), who bore him two children: Ole Johan (1929) Einar Christian (1932–1997). Later, Richter returned to Norway and settled in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

, where he joined Thunes Mechanical workshop to continue his work on turbines. Due to the Great Depression, he was let go in 1932.

Inventor and executive

Myrens Verkstäder hired Richter to head up the organisation with the specific task to develop and market new technologies for bleaching and other innovations within pulp and paper. Myrens Verkstäder and Karlstads Mekaniska Verkstad in Sweden already had a small joint venture within pulp and paper technology named Kamyr that was located in Karlstad, Sweden. In the middle on the 1930s, Kamyr launched their new process for continuous bleaching that was developed and patented by Richter. The company had an immediate success in Europe and later worldwide. Kamyr grew quickly and obtained the necessary resources and credibility for innovations to come. Richter already had a vision to introduce a process for continuous cooking of pulp. So far this had been done in batches, with its drawback in quality variance and being a barrier to rational nonstop production of paper. It took more than ten years to develop the Richter digester from its first prototype in 1940 to the final unit. The first installation was able to produce 30 tons per day, and a modern Richter digester produces more than 2500 tons per day. Richter became the CEO of Kamyr in 1950 while still directly responsible for Research and Development. In the following years Kamyr obtained more or less a monopoly position, as no other supplier was capable of presenting something similar. Paper mills all over the world switched to continuous uninterrupted production, which resulted in considerable savings and stable product quality.

Post-CEO activity

In 1959, Richter decided to step down as CEO of the company in order to re-focus on the technology. He assumed the title Chief Technical Advisor to the Kamyr Group. He stayed in that role until 1993, by which time he had signed over 750 patents worldwide. During this period Richter had relocated to France and collaborated with his son, Ole Johan, who was building and testing equipment and eventually also adding to the patented solutions.

Honours and awards

Honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology (1977) *Honorary member of the Paper Industry Technical Association (''Papirindustriens Tekniske Forening'') *Member of the

Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences The Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences ( no, Norges Tekniske Vitenskapsakademi, NTVA) is a learned society based in Trondheim, Norway. Founded in 1955, the academy has about 500 members. It is a member of the International Council of Ac ...

*Knight of the

Italian Order of Merit The Italian honours system is a means to reward achievements or service to the Italian Republic, formerly the Kingdom of Italy including the Italian Social Republic. Orders of chivalry Italian Republic There are five orders of knighthoo ...

(''Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana'') *Knight 1st class in the Order of St. Olav (1966) * Royal Academy of Technical Sciences (''Kungliga Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien'') Gold Medal (1963) *Inducted in the

Paper Industry International Hall of Fame The Atlas Science Center, formerly Paper Discovery Center, is a museum and workshop center focused on papermaking in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States, where paper is an important local industry. Programs in the past have included hands-on work ...

(2009)

References

Other sources

*S.L. Lövold et al.: “Johan Richter. Den moderne celluloseindustriens far'', , Kværner ASA, 1998 *”Fiberlines, Kvaerner Pulping Publication” nr 1 1999, pp. 6–11 *Johan Richter: ”The History of Kamyr Continuous Cooking”, 1981

External links

Johan C.F.C Richter Price and the TAPPI Gold Medal"Ingenjörskunskaper på högsta nivå". Swedish article, NWT.se, 2007 Kamyrveteraner"Här stod vaggan för kokeritekniken". Swedish article, NWT.se, 2007 KamyrveteranerJohan Richter 2009 inducted into the “Paper Industry International Hall of Fame”
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richter, Johan Papermakers 1901 births 1997 deaths People from Buskerud Norwegian University of Science and Technology alumni 20th-century Norwegian inventors 20th-century Norwegian engineers 20th-century Swedish inventors 20th-century Swedish engineers 20th-century Swedish businesspeople Pulp and paper industry Members of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences