SpectraFlow will replace the existing XRF Atline system at St Marys Cement's Bowmannville cement plant, Canada, which was installed to increase the sampling frequency and therefore, the control actions on the additive weight feeders.
The Bowmanville plant operates a 450tph raw mill and standard hourly samples are too slow to efficiently adjust the additive weight feeders. The Atline system increased the sample frequency to 10min (six samples an hour). However, as Atline systems have no proper sample preparation, the accuracy of the 10-minute results are low and therefore, effective feeder adjustments based on the Atline results are not possible. Additionally, Atline systems demand very high maintenance and down-times are common.
SpectraFlow will overcome these challenges, as the SpectraFlow Airslide online analyser will be installed on the airslide after the raw mail. It will increase the result frequency to every one-minute (60 results per hour) and will considerably improve the accuracy of the results as no sample taking or preparation is required. Currently, the Atline Analyser is installed close to the sampling point and fed by a sample that is not milled, as would be the case in a standard laboratory, so the sample tablet has relatively low representativity. Therefore, results can be highly variable and are often not usable for weight feeder adjustments.
Following the upgrade, the raw mill material will be measured continuously and the results can be directly transferred to their QCX software for real time adjustment of their additive weight feeders. Also a variable MgO, Na2O, K2O, Cl and SO3 content can monitored far more optimally. The more consistent kiln feed results in fewer kiln stoppages and fewer refractory issues.
This SpectraFlow order is the 64th order placed by the cement industry and the first Airslide analyser installation in Canada.
