We were discussing “Cements and
its types” and " Raw
materials for manufacturing of cements” and “pyroprocessing
in cement industry” in our previous posts. We have also see the concept
of cement manufacturing process and its selection in our recent post.
Today we are going to start here one very important
topic i.e. process technology of cement manufacturing. We will understand the
various terminologies and engineering concepts used in cement technology with
the help of this category.
Further we will go for discussion of properties
of burning technology, firing technology, clinker cooling and grinding, cement
packing and dispatch, pollution control and much more facts about cement
technology in our next post in this category of cement technology.
Let us see here the process technology of cement manufacturing
Material preparation technology
The purpose of the preparatory processing of raw
materials is to convert these chemically and mineralogically different
materials, usually supplied to the plant in form of coarse lumps, into raw meal
or slurry of homogenized composition.
The principal processing stages are
Primary crushing
Pre-blending
Drying and Grinding
Homogenization
Screening and classifying are separation methods
used to carry out size reduction with greater economy.
Reducing the raw material to a fine powder -
conventionally called ‘meal’, is necessary in order to produce a homogenous
mixture which will quickly be converted in the kiln into a homogenized clinker.
Size reduction is effected in at least two main
stages
Crushing (Primary
reduction)
Grinding (Fine
reduction)
Crushing:
Crushing of raw materials is a must to suit
subsequent milling operations.
There are two distinct crushing systems: Open
circuit and Closed circuit. Out of the two, open - circuit system with one pass
is widely used.
The selection of crusher type depends upon the
abrasiveness and stickiness (moisture content) of the raw materials. Most raw
materials are non- abrasive and Hammer- crusher with outlet grates is employed.
It can crush limestone from a lump size of 1- 2 m down to 35 mm. Fineness of
this degree is necessary if the subsequent raw mill is a ball mill, a high
pressure roller press or a combination of the two.
An Impact crusher for these raw mills would be
unsuitable since it usually gives product with bigger lump size (100 mm or larger).
Such large lumps cannot be ground in a ball mill and may cause damage to the
hard facing of the roller press. For such applications, an impact crusher must
operate in closed circuit with a sieve.
For abrasive
materials, Impact crushers and Hammer crushers are unsuitable as the downtime
and maintenance cost will be too high. Hence Gyratory crushers (compression type)
are used which are simple and sturdy and well suited for large feed sizes. The
reduction ratio is lower and hence these crushers are used as primary crushers
followed by a subsequent secondary crusher.
For sticky
materials such as clay, Roll crushers with single or double rolls are most
suitable.
Mobile Crushing Plants:
Because of the coarse grading of the fragmented rock
pile produced by blasting in the quarry, this material cannot be directly
handled by belt conveyors. In order to be able to use belt conveying from a
point as close to the quarry face as possible, the rock pile will have to be
crushed to ‘belt conveyable’ size, ~ 200 - 400 mm.
The need for crushing at the quarry face and for moving the crusher along with the site of quarrying
operation has led to the development of Mobile crushing plants ranging in
capacity up to the highest throughput required.
Depending upon the method of moving the crushing
plants from one place to another, a distinction can be made between the truly
mobile (self - propelled and having their own integrated travelling machinery)
and semi - mobile plants. Crushing plants may be wheel mounted, crawler mounted
or rail mounted. There are also reloadable plants which are skid mounted and
moving them requires powerful tractors.
Do you have any suggestions? Please write in comment
box.
We will see other topic i.e. “Process technology of cement manufacturing: Storage and Pre-blending” in our next post in the
category of Steel and cement technology.
I am very thankful to Mr. Subrata Bhaumik,
Independent cement consultant, for providing such beautiful information and
contents about cement technology.
Mr. Subrata Bhaumik has more than 50 (Fifty) Years
(1965 - 2016) of Experience in Cement and other related Industry covering more
than 100 assignments in cement plants with capacities ranging from 100 tpd to
10,000 tpd in India and abroad involving visit to 25 countries overseas in connection
with work.
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Author of this content, please click the Author profile link below.
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