Cement News tagged under: Tech Forum

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Red rivers of segregation

09 March 2016, Published under Cement News

This month’s Technical Forum ponders the tendency of particulate solids to segregate at various stages of the cement manufacturing process with critical implications, especially in the clinker cooler. Red rivers are caused by particle segregation in the cement production process and can cause premature equipment failure As this month’s Technical Forum focusses on the phenomenon of segregation in the cement manufacturing process, let’s start with a definition of segregation. ...

Workshops, NESHAP and optimisation

20 January 2016, Published under Cement News

The US NESHAP regulations provided a rich talking point at Cemtech Americas 2015 and discussions continued during the associated Technical Workshop. At the forthcoming Cemtech Middle East & Africa Technical Workshop on 8-10 February 2016, attention turns to the progressive levels of optimisation and understanding their interaction. Optimisation will be the central theme of the upcoming Cemtech Middle East & Africa Technical Workshop on 8-10 February 2016 The turn of the year ...

Co-processing – here to stay

16 December 2015, Published under Cement News

Co-processing is a major topic for this edition of ICR and, of course, an increasingly major theme for the world cement industry. One of the roles of the Technical Forum is to explain the technology and terminology deployed in the cement manufacturing industry, so this month we will take co-processing as our topic. Co-processing enables further use of waste products such as tyres, avoiding landfill or dumping What do we mean by ‘co-processing’ in the cement industry? Essentially...

Looking forward to Orlando

18 November 2015, Published under Cement News

Following the Cemtech Europe 2015 Technical Workshop, Dr Clark looks forward to the next workshop of its kind to be delivered in Orlando, USA, in December. With a two-day edition lined up, this month’s Technical Forum provides a timely opportunity to outline changes to the programme format and review course content tailored for the Americas’ audience. Following Cemtech Europe 2015 Technical Workshop, preparations for the two-day Orlando edition in December are in full swing T...

Looking forward to Orlando

18 November 2015, Published under Cement News

Following the Cemtech Europe 2015 Technical Workshop, Dr Clark looks forward to the next workshop of its kind to be delivered in Orlando, USA, in December. With a two-day edition lined up, this month’s Technical Forum provides a timely opportunity to outline changes to the programme format and review course content tailored for the Americas’ audience. Following Cemtech Europe 2015 Technical Workshop, preparations for the two-day Orlando edition in December are in full swing T...

Beyond Bernoulli

19 October 2015, Published under Cement News

Dr Clark considers the flow of gases through the cement kiln process and some of the governing principles and complexities. Preheater exhaust gas flows are an important source of recoverable energy A recurring theme of the Technical Forum has been the fundamental mass balance of a cement kiln and the mass flows into, through and away from the cement kiln system. The subject of this month’s article are the mass flows in the exhaust gases and particularly the preheater exhaust....

What cement users want

01 July 2015, Published under Cement News

Dr Clark returns to the topic of cement product development looking at how the properties of cement can be modified to suit different concrete and mortar applications. Cement producers need to develop products that are most required by construction companies to gain an advantage over their rivals In December 2014 while participating in a workshop on “innovation products for strategic growth” organised by Považská Cementáren in Slovakia, the Technical Forum focussed on the top...

Deep-dive benchmarking

11 June 2015, Published under Cement News

Dr Clark is finally able to talk about his involvement in an innovative project to improve the performance of supplier/service provider to the international cement industry. The real value of deep-dive benchmarking is reflected in the recommendations made on how to change the cement plant’s operations to become better than the competition Around 18 months ago the moderator was involved as a cement industry expert in a “deep-dive” benchmarking project on behalf of a supplier/s...

Production accounting

20 April 2015, Published under Cement News

Dr Clark muses on the complications of cement production accounting and the estimation of the physical inventory stocks of in-process materials. The monitoring and accounting for physical inventories is not without challenges February’s Cemtech Middle East and Africa in Dubai was again an informative event enjoyed by all participants. For the moderator it was a particularly busy time as a three-day technical workshop was delivered for 26 people from cement companies in Angola, I...

A chimney of corruption

17 November 2014, Published under Cement News

Dr Clark recounts how statistical analysis of the variation in product quality control testing can be used to detect the corrupt reporting of testing results as one particular case of a cement company comes to mind. This method can help avoid the spectre of expensive lawsuits and damage to the cement maker’s reputation. Figure 1: clinker free lime distribution – typical skewed results On a quiet, misty autumn morning the moderator was contemplating the subject of his next Techni...