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Cement kiln maintenance optimisation important for efficiency

MAINTENANCE PREPARATION
Proper maintenance planning will also improve the efficiency of repairs during unplanned stoppages

MAINTENANCE PREPARATION Proper maintenance planning will also improve the efficiency of repairs during unplanned stoppages

Photo by Duane Daws

6th February 2015

By: Schalk Burger

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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Cement producers should prepare adequately for shutdowns so that maintenance work proceeds rapidly and must optimise their plants to enable efficient maintenance and repairs during shutdowns. This will also improve the efficiency of repairs during unplanned stoppages, says cement and limekiln specialist company Dickinson Group East Africa GM Anton Briedenhann.

Many delays during shutdowns are the result of simple problems and cement plants are not designed to facilitate easy maintenance. Access to portions of the kilns and preheaters is often difficult. Further, the areas outside the access hatches are often tight; therefore, large machines and equipment cannot be used in those areas, reducing efficiency.

Cement plants should use shutdowns to improve their plants to make maintenance more efficient. For example, efficient maintenance might entail the widening of access hatches to allow for a mounted jackhammer machine to enter, making demolition much simpler, or the installation of permanent hoists to enable easier relining of the kiln during future maintenance.

Detailed historical information of all maintenance and changes must be available for the maintenance crews to use as reference, Briedenhann adds.

Further, correctly identifying the scope of maintenance – an important function of adequate maintenance preparation – will prevent scope creep. This should be measured against historical maintenance and repair information to identify and eliminate recurring problems.

“Our maintenance teams have to deal with even more elementary problems, such as lack of access to potable water, electricity and compressed air supply; improper storage and staging of materials; inadequate lighting; and no backup plans if utilities fail, which all lead to delays and inefficiency during routine maintenance.”

Improved maintenance efficiency, detailed historical plans and accurate scope identification, enable plants to improve their performance, says Briedenhann.

He adds that, during maintenance shutdowns, process engineers can, for example, more easily, introduce different refractory bricks to reduce spalling or that are more resistant to chemical weathering to improve the operational time of a kiln before needing maintenance.

Further, US cement kiln equipment and brickmaking-machine manu-facturer Bricking Solutions, a subsidiary of US demolition company Brokk and a Dickinson equipment partner, has new safety and demolition equipment that can improve maintenance.

The new equipment includes hoisted platforms that enable easy demolition and replacement of refractory bricks. The platforms can be disassembled to fit through narrow access hatches and can be specially designed to fit through restricted access hatches.

The platforms can handle up to three pallets of refractory bricks, improving materials handling during maintenance, and can also be fitted with a Brokk demolition machine. The debris falling through the platform without damaging it, says Bricking Solutions international sales MD David Chavis.

“We can design and build equip- ment to suit plants’ specific maintenance and operational requirements, ” he notes, highlighting a platform was designed for a company to fit its cyclones number three to five, as well as its calcinator, with a capacity of 2 500 kg. Chavis adds that the wheels of the platform extend to the walls to provide stability, while the demolition machine’s outriggers will lock against the walls.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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