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Talking About Milling Technology

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World Cement,


Gebr. Pfeiffer joined World Cement to answer a range of questions on the latest developments in grinding and milling technology.

How can digital technologies improve the performance of grinding and milling operations?

When people talk about ‘digital technologies’ today, many think of the use of artificial intelligence. This is quite understandable, especially when it comes to sustainability, because a well-programmed AI is a useful tool for optimising the grinding process in order to save resources and money.

Digital technology also stands for the detection, collection, evaluation, and systematic analysis of data, with a view to the optimal operation of a mill or grinding plant.

Whereas in the past it was the technical competence of individual plant operators, based on many years of operating experience, that ensured the ‘good’ operation of a plant, this was however very subjective and tied to individual persons.

With the help of the digital technology available today, it is possible to record and analyse operating conditions more comprehensively and objectively, and to localise the optimisation potential in a targeted manner. This improves preventive maintenance and remote support enormously and, on top of that, saves resources, protecting the environment through an AI-optimised grinding process.

Today, optimisation no longer has to be one-dimensionally fixed on a single parameter. Multidimensional optimisation through digital technologies can mean, for example, realising an economically but also ecologically optimised overall balance of electrical and thermal energy and other scarce resources with very good production performance.

At Pfeiffer, we recognised the potential of these technologies early on and formed our own task force. Through this optimally composed team of grinding process and programming specialists, as well as close cooperation with scientific institutes, we have worked to create the best possible conditions for digital products to meet the needs of the market.

How does the use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) impact the grinding process?

Supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) or clinker replacement materials (CRMs) influence the grindability, operational behaviour, and reactivity of a vertical roller mill. SCMs can be artificial or natural. Artificial SCMs include, for example: fly ash, granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS), and silica fume. Natural materials include: limestone, pozzolana, and clay. In many countries, limestone is the most easily available supplementary material. Limestone dilutes the clinker content of the cement and impacts the strength development. Therefore, composite cements containing those SCMs need to be ground to a higher fineness to achieve the required reactivity.

Properties of GBFS and fly ash, for example, can vary widely. In line with the required product properties it has to be taken into consideration that intergrinding can result in finer fractions containing either very little or no GBFS or fly ash.

One advantage of intergrinding clinker and SCMs is the formation of a stable grinding bed due to the granulometries of the clinker and SCM which interact positively. The moisture of an SCM can also help to build a stable grinding bed. Our flexible MVR mills are known for their smooth running. They are in use worldwide for processing all of the materials described and operators can react quickly if material sources change. Contrary to a ball mill system, the MVR mill is flexible for all grain size variations and moisture contents in the feed material as well as coarser or very fine product fineness degrees. Our vertical mills can run with intergrinding or separate grinding. They process CEM I to a fineness of 5500 cm2/g (according to Blaine) and cements with a clinker content of less than 30%, to name just a few examples.


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Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/special-reports/20022023/talking-about-milling-technology/

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