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Enhancing Air Cannons

Published by , Editorial Assistant
World Cement,


Air cannons have been in the cement industry for at least 50 years. Their primary function has been to maximise system performance by removing buildup. Today’s regulations make that even more challenging. In an effort to reduce carbon emissions, many plants are burning more alternative fuels (AFs), which produce buildup that is difficult to clean.

When those same plants rely on air cannon technology that predated the increase of AFs, the result is suboptimal performance. Traditional technology is simply unable to address today’s challenges. Although new air cannons, which generate far more cleaning power, are available, many plants lack sufficient capital to replace their air cannon installation. For those plants, the best option is to improve their existing air cannon installation by increasing reliability, volume, and nozzle performance. This can be done to virtually any air cannon.

  • Why is reliability important? Because it does not matter how powerful an air cannon is, if it is not working.
  • Why is volume important? Because it does not matter how good a discharge is, if it lacks sufficient cleaning energy.
  • Why is nozzle performance important? Because it does not matter how reliable an air cannon is or how much volume it has, if it fails to clean the specific application.

Reliability

Several factors can affect an air cannon’s reliability, but the three biggest causes of premature failure are proximity to application, material entering the air cannons, and water in the air supply. Improving these conditions will increase air cannon reliability.

Many air cannons fail due to installation practices. Some OEMs recommend that the air cannon be installed as closely to the discharge point as possible to maintain maximum air pressure. Experience has repeatedly proven, however, that air cannons do not function well in high temperatures. When air cannons are installed as close to the discharge point as possible, they are exposed to the high temperatures of the application and fail prematurely. Air cannons should, rather, be installed in such a way to maximise cleaning efficiency without undue exposure to high temperatures.

Installing air cannons as close as possible to the discharge point also results in many air cannons being placed in areas that make regular maintenance next to impossible, or at least very expensive and unsafe. Specifically, many air cannons are installed high up from the ground and are only accessible by putting up scaffolding, which greatly increases costs and leads to a decrease in regular maintenance.

Another issue that often arises is that when air cannons are not cleaning as well as they should, some plants use other methods of cleaning, such as high-pressure water washing or cardox cleaning. Both often result in particulate matter being put back into the air cannon, which then leads to break down of the equipment. Do not high-pressure water wash or cardox without protecting your air cannon!

While air cannons do need to be placed close enough to the applications to clean well, the technology of air cannons has advanced to the point where larger distances (and even a few 90-degree bends in pipes) are not the barriers they used to be. Thanks to higher volume air cannons and improved nozzles, air cannons can now be placed in friendlier environments (i.e., away from higher temperatures and in areas that are easier to access for maintenance) while still maintaining optimal cleaning ability.

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Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/special-reports/15012025/enhancing-air-cannons/

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