Travancore Cements Ltd.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
When earth itself was undergoing intense geologic changes, natural cementwas being created. It was this natural cement that humans first put to use. Eventually,they discovered how to make cement from other materials. Cement is a finely grounded powder which when mixed with water sets to a hard material. Cement has been mostexclusively used as a building material for past several years and remains so even today.It is exclusively used in constructing roads, buildings, bridges, dams, canals and innumber of other places. New users are being found all the time, as now we have cementconcrete railway sleepers, electric poles, tenting and even manhole covers. Noreplacement exists for the cement in foreseeable future and it is bound to retain its prominence in the field of construction.The ancient Romans developed cement and concrete similar to the kinds usedtoday. They manufactured cement by mixing slaked lime (lime with water) with avolcanic ash called Pozzuolana. People lost the art of making cement after the fall of Roman Empire in AD 400’s. In 1759, John Sneaton , a British Engineer found how tomake hydraulic cements by using blue lime with clay content and Pozzuolana from Italy.I. C. Johnson produced Portland cement in 1845. Portland cement contains about 60%lime, silica and 5% alumina. Iron oxide and Gypsum make up the rest of the materials.In the plant the materials go through a chemical process that consists of three basic stepsnamely crushing, grinding, burning and finish grinding.Cement was developed by Joseph Asp Din of England. He manufacturedcommercially the improved quality of Portland cement in a country market kiln in theyear 1848. The present day high quality cement is unique versatile building material, a product of technological development. Cement produced on 21
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October 1854 was patented as Portland cement.Industrial era in Kerala and its beginning from the time of Sir C.P RamaswamyIyer, Diwan of Travancore State during the pre-independence period. He knew that thecement is one of the basis industrial needs for the speedy industrialization of the stateand felt it is very essential for the state to have atleast a cement factory. But lime stoneOrganisation study 20083
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