Produce high-quality cement and minimise production stoppage

The cause of cement lumps and blockages is often prehydration, which is the premature reaction of cement with water. Water is always present during cement production either through injection during grinding, as a vapour from gases, or from the feed materials. Therefore, it is vital to avoid the conditions that cause prehydration in your mill system and cement silos.

Solving the root cause

One solution to lumps and blockages in the silo is to try to remove them by additional silo cleaning. This is not a desirable activity for regular operation. In addition to causing significant downtime and loss of sellable product, silo cleaning poses serious safety risks for personnel.

Other options for removing lumps and blockages - such as installing a cement cooler - require capital investment and increase annual maintenance spending.

In contrast, our SiloSafe Cement service identifies the root cause of problems and enables you to prevent them, for a cost that is negligible compared to the alternative options. The service is efficient, accurate, sustainable, and safe.

Significant commercial benefits

Apart from enabling safer working conditions compared to alternative solutions to silo issues, the SiloSafe Cement service offers important economic and commercial benefits. It decreases unplanned stoppages, and reduces product waste and the need for unnecessary silo cleaning. Through reliable and accurate laboratory tests and specialist recommendations, it also enables you to consistently produce high-quality cement.

What is the SiloSafe Cement service?

Our SiloSafe Cement service is based on more than 135 years of cement grinding experience and intensive in-house research. Whether you already struggle with issues in your existing mill or have just installed a new mill and want to avoid problems, this service will support you. To help prevent silo lumps and produce high-quality cement, we gather information about all relevant aspects of your specific cement process, including operating data, physical and chemical properties of materials, and the condition of your equipment.
 
Based on this, we suggest the appropriate laboratory tests and collect samples of feeding materials and cement. We analyse these in an FLSmidth laboratory, using advanced techniques that we have uniquely developed, and we identify the root causes of problems. We then make specific, tailored recommendations for the best grinding temperature and water injection. These parameters can vary depending on several factors. Our specialist recommendations, conveniently provided in a report, are always specific to your particular plant process and based on accurate analysis.

In addition, you can combine our SiloSafe Cement service with onsite services, for example, to collect samples; to optimise your mill operation based on the specialist recommendations; to train operators; or to do additional inspections and adjustments in the grinding system.