01
The line
HEILI pilot machine — Lemi
● Pilot · Validation · Scale-up · Lemi · Finland
You have a material challenge.
We take it from bench to production line.
Loonshot Factory is a precommercial pilot and validation platform in Lemi, Finland — for NextGen packaging papers, molded fibre and agrofibre pulping. We develop your concept, prove it on a real line, and help integrate it into your production and the FMCG packaging supply chain.
Open to a startup's budget. Built to an industrial standard.
HEILI · 75 cm headbox · 50–70 kg/h
PROMISE
Other pilots hand you a result.
We hand you a material your supply chain can buy.
One platform from first trial to qualified production: pulping and material development, pilot runs, an on-site ISO/TAPPI lab, and a scale-up data pack — under one roof, run by one team. Startups validate here at a fraction of institutional cost. FMCG and OEM partners get a concept de-risked and ready for their supply chain.
CAPABILITY · 00
A full chain. One site.
Feed preparation, pulping, refining, forming, drying and testing — calibrated and observed end-to-end.
02
Pulping
Furnish & fibre development
03
Stock on wire
Forming · multi-layer capable
04
Reel
25–250 g/m² · 62 cm width
05
Belt filter
Washing · 300 kg/h · MCC route
06
Lab
ISO / TAPPI · in-house
WHAT WE DEVELOP · 01
Six domains. Every one with live work behind it.
We're not a testing bureau that hands back a number. We develop the pulping, the furnish, the part or the web — prove it on a calibrated line — and stay with it into your production.
Open the domain pageD·01FLAGSHIP
Recycled textile-fibre paper
Textile-to-paper for e-commerce and retail packaging. We develop the furnish and the web from recycled textile and recovered fibre, validate to a retail-grade spec, and move it toward an OEM mill. Inventor-led; the marquee category.
D·02
Agrofibre & side-stream pulping
A pulping route for reed, straw, bagasse, hemp, bark or sawmill side-streams — pre-treatment (caustic, steam-explosion), refining, forming — then integrated into client production.
D·03
Hard subprocess problems
Washing, cleaning, drying, dewatering, screening. The unit operations everyone underestimates and most pilot shops can't close. Belt-filter washing, contaminant removal, thin-film chemical recovery.
D·04
Molded-fibre packaging & product
Concept and product development for molded fibre — from furnish through formed part. Dedicated molding capability, separate from the paper line.
D·05
Specialty cellulose: MFC · MCC · NFC
Micro-, nano- and microcrystalline cellulose development and characterisation. Fibrillation (Zapaca, Atrex), morphology and downstream windows.
D·06
Scale-up & supply-chain integration
Process and energy data pack, basis-of-design, and active help moving a validated concept into client production and FMCG / OEM packaging supply chains. We don't stop at the reel.
ACCESS · 02
Start at a startup's budget. Scale to an FMCG line.
Most validation is priced to keep startups out. We built ours to let them in — then to reward the ones who commit. Same platform; you choose where you enter.
TIER 01
Explorer
Startups, first trials
Single trials. The affordable on-ramp.
TIER 02
Developer
Multi-week development
Gate-by-gate concept development.
TIER 03
Producer
Recurring production
Repeat campaigns, qualification volume.
TIER 04
Anchor
Strategic partners
Dedicated capacity. Capex co-invest.
Lab testing starts lower still and is the on-ramp. See how you engage →
THE LINE
HEILI pilot machine
- — 75 cm headbox · 62 cm reel
- — 25–250 g/m² · 50–70 kg/h
- — Full stock prep, multi-stage refining
- — 4-chemical inline dosing
- — Multi-layer & foam-forming capable
THE LAB
~80 m² of purpose-built lab
- — Wet lab · dry lab · ISO 187 conditioning room
- — ISO / TAPPI / EN on every reel set
- — Tensile · burst · tear · Cobb · porosity · smoothness
- — 60+ external test partner network
PROOF · 03
What's moving
Where things actually stand. Client names anonymised by default — most of our work is under NDA.
Contracted
Textile-fibre paper · FLAGSHIP
Large retail packaging partner. Under NDA.
Pipeline
Retail e-commerce paper
Textile-to-packaging trials with retail partners.
In development
Textile-sheet development
European materials company.
Dev partnership
Reed molded fibre
Anchor partner programme.
In negotiation
Agrifibre straw liner
European brand-and-packaging consortium.
CONTACT
Have a concept to prove?
Tell us the material, where it is today, and where it needs to get to. We come back with a scoping note and a realistic pilot plan — under NDA by default.