Photo: Cementa

Cementa AB monitors lime kiln drive with SPM HD

Cementa AB is one of Sweden's largest manufacturers of building materials and part of the international group HeidelbergCement. The facility on Gotland off the Swedish east coast now monitors the condition of its lime kiln drive with Intellinova Compact and SPM HD.

In December 2013, Cementa took an important step in their preventive maintenance work by installing online condition monitoring with SPM HD and vibration measurement on the powertrain of the rotary kiln, where limestone is burned into clinker. The powertrain consists of two motors and transmissions driving the kiln via a gear wheel. The lime kiln is a critical application and was therefore the prime candidate for an expansion of the condition monitoring program.

The monitoring system consists of sixteen shock pulse transducers and six vibration sensors connected to the Intellinova Compact INS12 online system.

In 2012, the Preventive Maintenance group also upgraded its previous portable instruments for shock pulse measurement to Leonova Infinity in order to raise the level also for measuring points monitored through periodic measurement.

Maintenance Engineer Håkan Lindqvist comments on the choice of measuring equipment:
"We have a long history together with SPM, dating back to the early 80s. Over the years, it has been our experience that SPM understands the importance of good customer relations and service, which was decisive in our choice of supplier of online equipment. With this investment, we have taken a further step to improve our plant maintenance. We now hope for the opportunity to extend the system to include several important machines. Measurement on the lime kiln drive is now fully up and running and with no problems."

Cementa’s facility on Gotland is one of Europe's most modern and energy-efficient cement factories with advanced metering and monitoring systems. To ensure a quality product, automated sampling and control is done throughout the production process. 240 people are employed at the site. The daily production capacity is 7 000 tonnes of cement, equalling about 2.5 million tonnes per year. The plant also produces 20 500 MWh of electricity and 15 600 MWh of district heating annually.

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