Blast Cement Clogs With the AirSweep
Every hour of downtime cost them $12,000—AirSweep solves it in 4 days
To produce cement, materials like shale, limestone, pyrite and sand are ground into a fine powder and then funnelled into a silo before being fed into a kiln. One of the biggest building supplies and cement manufacturers in the Philippines, with factories all over the country, had an issue with shale hanging on the silo wall.
Problem
Humidity hampers operations
The Philippines has very high humidity, and the moisture in the air would solidify the cement materials, clog the machines and bring production to a halt. For a particular vessel, the company needed a continuous rate of flow of 25-30 tons an hour. With other vessels in the plant, they had tried knockers and vibration motors. They also had factory workers hammer the silo to free the sediment. This happened so frequently that the company even had a formula for the cost of downtime (and hammer time) on their monthly operations. That’s one way to hit their targets – but there had to be a better one.
Solution
Four days to a hammer-free plant
It took AirSweep® just 4 days to solve a problem that plagued the company for years. This was costing them an estimated $12,000 per hour of downtime. They installed the 2” AirSweep System Model VA-51, placing 12 units on the sides of the silos. Both installation and testing of the AirSweep took less than 8 hours, with the remaining time spent on air piping and headers.
Results
Reduced build-up, noise and energy consumption
AirSweep material flow systems quickly cleared any build-up, blasting compressed air into the vessel walls and sweeping the cement materials back into the flow stream. As the flow became faster and more reliable, production and efficiency increased.
Not only that, the noise level has gone down significantly (no more hammering and knockers). In developing countries where the price of KWH is very high, the electricity savings alone can bring in a great return on investment versus knockers and industrial vibrators since AirSweep is estimated to use half as much energy. With these results, the client will be rolling out more AirSweep systems in their factories.
