Kinetrol Pneumatic Actuators: Superior Performance in the Cement Industry

Cement is produced by means of a tightly regulated chemical combination of calcium, silicon, aluminum, iron and other components. Shell and chalk or marl combined with shale, clay, slate, furnace slag, silica sand, and iron ore are the common materials used to manufacture the cement. Once heated at high temperatures, these materials form a rock-like material that is ground to the fine powder we usually think of as cement.

The cement industry is the building block of the country's building industry. Without using cement somewhere in the architecture, few construction projects will take place.  With the operation of around 107 cement plants in 36 States, US cement production is widely dispersed.

Cement production places demanding requirements on gates, valves, and actuators. They must operate under harsh conditions, where the environment is dusty, dirty, and hot. Maintenance represents a significant part of operating costs, and as such, is a critical point of improvement.  Unplanned shutdowns caused by equipment failure can be very costly. Slow downs influence productivity and the profit contribution per hour, and cost per hour of outages in the cement industry is very high.

This video presents a strong argument as to why the Kinetrol pneumatic vane type actuator provides the cement industry with a clearly better alternative than traditional rack and pinion or motorized solutions.

For more information, contact Kinetrol USA. Call them at 972-447-9443 or visit their web site at https://kinetrolusa.com.

Cement Hopper Valve Actuator Requires Kinetrol's Accuracy, Dependability and Toughness

Location of the actuator and valve at bottom of hopper.

A midwestern cement plant had a hopper loading system that was being manually controlled. A human operator, using a long pole attached to a valve arm on a hopper, dispensed the flow of cement. The silo is divided internally into 4 sections. Each section has its own 12" butterfly valve which allows product to fall into a single hopper above a weighing scale. At the bottom of the hopper, and above the truck loading spout, the butterfly valve throttles the product into cement trucks.

No only did this approach require a human operator (with associated costs and safety precautions) to be present, the manual system didn't provide the degree of control the company needed. Careful control of the cement into the truck is important because uncontrolled flow, or too rapid a flow, will overwhelm the dust collection system and allow fugitive emissions (dust) to escape to the atmosphere. A serious regulatory and safety issue.

Kinetrol actuators and positioners perform in dirt and dust.

Together, the local Kinetrol Distributor sales rep and customer came up with a new system utilizing a Kinetrol vane actuator and an EL electropneumatic positioner. The new design accurately modulates the cement flow through the 12" valve. This approach gives the customer much closer flow control and eliminates the need to a human operator. It also allows for the terminal to be remotely operated from more than 4 miles away, all with reliable and repeatable results.

For more information, contact Kinetrol USA by visiting https://kinetrolusa.com or by calling 972-447-9443.

Pneumatic Valve and Damper Actuators Designed to Stand Up to the Cement Industry

Cement silos.

Cement plants take a harsh toll on equipment such as valves and actuators. Abrasive material is involved from the beginning to the end. Materials handled are often dusty and cause severe abrasive wear of equipment. The movement, blending, storage, and transport of limestone, shale, iron ore, and clay wreaks havoc on the life expectancy of process equipment. Additionally, corrosion issues in cement plants are frequent and costly.

Because of their reliability and ruggedness, Kinetrol rotary vane actuators are used in many processes across a cement plant. These applications include vehicle unloading, silo discharge, air cooling dampers, distribution, bagging and emissions control.

You can download a PDF that outlines where vane actuators are used in all areas of cement production here, or you can read the embedded document below.

Kinetrol Vane Actuators in the Cement Industry from Kinetrol USA

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.

Cement Silos Need Valve Actuators with Power and Reliability

Kinetrol spring return actuator on cement silo valve.

A silo is a structure for storing bulk materials. The cement silo is an integral piece of equipment for any concrete production operation as it allows the product to be stored, purchased and distributed in bulk. Fitted beneath silos, various types of butterfly or other rotary valves are used to control the flow of cement into trucks or other transport devices.

One particular cement processing plant needed a replacement for their main silo off loading valves. These valves fill cement trucks the company used to deliver their product.

The plant's existing valves were poorly applied for this use and were causing major headaches. The valves were designed with thin steel plate, large gaps between the valve body and disc, and rubber seals that wore away, leading to cement leaking through the valve. The leaking cement would spill onto a feed trough where it would cake and require manual cleaning - an expensive and time consuming operation. If the valve didn’t leak, this expense and time would be saved.

A custom valve manufacturer was called in to use their engineering and fabrication expertise to develop a custom valve that would last. The result was a new rotary valve that uses a much hardier wear plate, and the rotor and body are carefully machined with only a 2/100ths of an inch gap between them. Additionally, the design provides a mechanism to catch any cement should any ever make it through the gap.

The new, custom designed valve needed an actuator that would be equally reliable. The selection of Kinetrol vane actuator with a spring return was the most obvious because its power and its reliability. With only one moving part and no complex linkage to wear out, it was the best choice for long life. The combination of valve and actuator is expected to last many thousands of operations with no maintenance.