International Cement Review articles tagged under : Manufacturing Technology
Sustainable lubrication
Open-gear drives of kilns and ball mills are often exposed to harsh operating conditions. While considerable advances have been made in terms of the design and manufacture of drives, tooth flank damage remains an issue due to excessive wear or material fatigue. Correct lubricant selection and application play a vital role in addressing the problem. By Werner Gschwandtner and Hermann Siebert, K...
Boosting AF rates with flame thermography
Over the past 30 years the cement industry has witnessed an increasing use of alternative fuels (AF), but the amount that can be fired in the main burner is limited by different process factors. To optimise AF firing...
China steps into the lime light
As the urbanisation rate in China increases and the government legislates for a more sustainable society, the use of lime is set to expand. This is expected to lead to the modernisation and consolidation of the count...
Novel no-cement refractories
For the areas in cement plants impacted by high wear or corrosion, refractory specialists have developed new no-cement refractory materials based on electrochemical bonding. A 25 per cent silicon carbide material has...
Efficient grinding meets reduced CO2 emissions
While cement plants have made sound progress in terms of reducing CO 2 emissions from fuel consumption, progress relating to such emissions from electricity consumption has been slower. VDZ looks at a key power cons...
External circulation technology for VRM raw meal grinding
The pressure differential of a traditional vertical roller mill (VRM) system for raw meal grinding is high, with the fan accounting for about 45 per cent of power consumption. Sinoma International Engineering has dev...
Countdown for Bardon
As part of LafargeHolcim’s Capital Markets Day in 2018, guests enjoyed a site visit to Europe’s largest aggregates quarry at Bardon Hill, east of Coalville, Leicestershire, UK. Owned by LafargeHolcim subsidiary Aggre...
The digital quarry
Quarries often give the impression that they have been forgotten in capital investment projects, having bypassed technological changes for several years. However, the quarry is where production starts and here, moder...
Processing depth for AFs
In his paper ‘A new approach to burning alternative fuels’, delivered at the Cemtech Europe 2018 conference in Istanbul, Turkey, Oral Turesay of KHD Humboldt Wedag introduced the concept of ‘processing depth’. His th...
Portland cement, lime and alkali-activated binders
Following on from last month’s discussion regarding the production of alternatives to Portland cement clinker, Arthur Harrisson takes a closer look at alkali-activated binders. Fly ash needs to be activated to...
A cooler for the future
To reduce frequent clinker cooler downtime and high clinker temperatures a US cement plant required a new cooler to be installed. As an additional benefit future upgrades would also be easier to carry out. By IKN, Ge...
Digital twins
Established for some time in industries such as automotive, logistics and even healthcare, digital twins are becoming more widespread. For the cement industry digital twins can also provide benefits as they enable ac...
Belite appearance in clinkers
This month Arthur Harrisson looks at the second-most abundant constituent of cement – belite – and its appearance in clinkers. Figure 1: Type I belite with multiple sets of parallel laminations. The blue cryst...
Modular miracles
Cement producers looking for fast entry into growing small- and medium-sized markets are increasingly looking at employing the light-asset approach. Modular and mobile grinding systems can provide a versatile and cos...
Alternative clinkers
The drive to lower the carbon footprint of cement has led to the development of alternative cement clinkers to replace Portland cement clinker. Arthur Harrisson examines the potential of carbon reduction in four alte...
Admixtures and sustainability
With reducing the environmental impact of cement manufacture high on the agenda for producers, sustainable cement additives based on renewable materials can contribute towards reducing a plant’s carbon footprint and ...