Problem

Cement Plant located in Western India, Rajasthan part of Novoco Vistas (formerly Lafarge India) encountered severe erosion and abrasion of Vertical Roll Mill (VRM) roller and table liners.

ACMECAST was asked to visit the plant and make evaluation of rapid wear of Raw Mill VRM, as well as Primary Crusher mills.

Evaluation, Assessment, Recommendation And Solution(s)

On a two-day plant visit, and an impromptu shut down taken for ACMECAST’s evaluation and assessment, various areas including mines, raw meal, crusher mill, additive mixing plant, raw mill, Vertical Roll Mill and Rotary Kiln were reviewed.

A comprehensive report of 75 pages, including 14 recommendations were presented to the plant head and the board of company.

Some key findings include extremely highly corrosion and abrasive nature of additive mixes, which were aggravating the wear rates in conjunction with the limestone from mines having quartz content.

The VRM of Geber Pfeiffer roller and table liners wear patterns were studied for last 5 years, and recommendations were made to use correct wear-abrasion alloy for VRM roller and table liners, correct selection of hard-facing materials for VRM roller and table liners, with correct welding procedure, protocol and repair standard operation procedures.

Result

The mill was started after the maintenance program done according to the recommendations and shut downs which were earlier every month and long shut down every three months, were extended to 6 months of cement plant up time.

Most shut downs were due to failure of VRM and Kiln areas.

New materials and good hardfacing repair solutions suggested has helped the plant team.

A new assignment of Air Injection Nozzle failure assessment was given to us for the captive power plant while the cement plant team and company management was satisfied with our findings, recommendations and solutions for replacement parts.