Successful installation in Slovakia

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has announced the successful installation of its SpectraFlow and Raw Mix Preparation (RMP) solutions at CEMMAC’s plant in Slovakia.

CEMMAC was founded in 1883 with the acquisition of its limestone quarry. Today CEMMAC employs 247 people and manufactures Portland cement and Portland slag cement.

The material at CEMMAC’s quarry comes from three different zones, yielding a mixture of medium and low quality marl and high quality limestone. Moisture changes have a big effect on the marl, which makes it difficult to measure the concentration with a conventional sampling station. Consequently it was frequently the case that the lime saturation factor (LSF) of the raw material arriving at the raw mill exceeded the upper process limit. Therefore CEMMAC was seeking a solution that would establish a target LSF and significantly reduce the LSF variations in its mixing bed. The solution was a combination of the ABB online analyser SpectraFlow plus the ABB Expert Optimizer module Raw Mix Preparation.

SpectraFlow uses SOLBAS™ technology, which uses Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy (NIRS) to provide the chemical composition data. The SpectraFlow analyser solution can be used on any conveyor belt, regardless of width or belt composition and does not require dedicated safety personnel or special operating licenses. Moreover, it does not require any physical contact with the sample material in order to provide data. This immediately brought improvements for CEMMAC, since previous problems caused by a sample based analyser coming into contact with moist marl no longer existed. ABB installed its SpectraFlow online analyser at CEMMAC in February 2008. Moisture, however, impacts composition readings and so in February 2009 a new analyser strategy model was installed to take moisture levels into better account in the data and analysis.

A further benefit is that the SpectraFlow online analyser is able to provide a sample value every minute. The frequency of sample data means that truck-by-truck sampling is possible.

ABB’s RMP solution, in combination with SpectraFlow, is now achieving an LSF of 80 +/- 5 for each 180 t segment of a round mixing bed. Mr Kebisek, Quarry Manager at CEMMAC, said “Pressure on the quarry staff has been reduced since they can now refer to the RMP solution for clear guidance on how best to handle material”.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/europe-cis/22032010/successful_installation_in_slovakia/