Kinetrol Pneumatic Actuators for Portland Cement Production

Cement valve using Kinetrol Actuator

Portland cement is a fine powder, gray or white in color, that consists of a mixture of hydraulic cement materials comprising primarily calcium silicates. More than 30 raw materials are known to be used in the manufacture of portland cement. These materials are chemically combined and subjected to subsequent mechanical processing operations to form gray and white portland cement. Gray portland cement is used for structural applications and is the more common type of cement produced. White portland cement has lower iron and manganese contents than gray portland cement and is used primarily for decorative purposes.

Typically, these raw materials are obtained from open-face quarries, underground mines, or dredging operations.  When mining, pockets of pyrite, which significantly increase emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), can be found in deposits of limestone, clays, and shales used as raw materials for portland cement.

Transport of the raw materials is accomplished by a variety of mechanisms, including screw
conveyors, belt conveyors, drag conveyors, bucket elevators, air slide conveyors, and pneumatic conveying systems. A variety of valves, gates, and dampers are required to accurately control the flow of raw materials as they are being discharged from pipes, silos, bins and hoppers. These flow control devices all have one thing in common - the actuators that control their opening and closing are exposed to extremely dusty and dirty atmospheres, with significant amounts of vibration - and they are almost always located in an area where repairs are very costly.

Kinetrol vane actuators are used to automate these gate, butterfly and mixer valves because of their ruggedness and their reliability. Additionally, Kinetrol pneumatic actuators have a smaller footprint and consume less air compared to other pneumatic actuators or conventional linear pneumatic cylinders, resulting in significant savings in energy costs.