Cement Mill Drives

Layout
Process Description
Crusher Drives
Compressor Drives
Waste Gas Fan Drives
Rotary Kiln Drives
Cement Mill Drives
 Cement Making
The raw materials for producing cement contain lime and silica as main
components and ferric oxide as fluxing components.
The limestone mixed from the quarries is crushed and transported to the
plant by dumper wagons.
The crushed limestone together with the required amounts of corrective
additives like clay bauxite, iron ore etc. is ground in grinding mills.
The fine dry powder coming out is homogenized by passage of air from
bottom and through the medium.
It is then fed into the kiln for producing cement clinker at high
temperatures.
The clinker coming out of the kiln is air cooled in special types of coolers
and then transported to the storage.
After aging in storage for atleast three days the clinker, mixed with the
right amounts of gypsum is fed to the cement grinding mills and ground
to required fineness.
The cement is stored in silos, drawn for packing in gunny bags and
dispatched by wagons to the dealers.
Block Diagram – Dry Process
 Drives Used
The driving motors used in the cement industry can be broadly classified as
follows:
 Cement Mill drives
 Kiln drives
 Crusher drives
 Waste Gas Fan drives
 Compressor drives
Crusher Drives
 Crusher Drives
Function:
Mining – blasting limestone and clay. Rock fragments transported. Cement is
typically produced from limestone, clay, sand and iron ore. Before the raw
material is ground, high-powered stationary or mobile crushers reduce the
material to a processable size. The drive systems used not only have to handle
the significant mass moment of inertia of the crusher rotor during startup, but
also be able to withstand continuously high torque peaks.
Crusher chunks obtained this way are approximately 1.5 inches in size.
Requirements of crusher motors:
The starting torque should be limited to 160% of the full load torque.
Breakdown torque should be 200 to 250% of full load torque.
Overload capacity of 15% for 15s and 20% for 10s taking into
consideration the adverse loading conditions encountered in practice.
The rotor should be able to withstand locked rotor current, without any
external resistance, for one minute. (Important as entrapped boulders may
jam the crushers.)

The motors that meet the above requirements are:

1. Slip ring induction motor with rotor resistance starters and speed control
are suited as crusher drives. A dc chopper is used to control the resistance.
2. They are available in multiple jaw, conical and roll crusher variety.
Process
Compressor Drives
The air compressor motors have ratings in the range 300 kW to 450 kW.
The compressors when started on load require high starting torque and
equipment for limiting the starting current. TEFC enclosed motors with
speeds varying between 1000 and 750 rpm are employed.
Generally, the compressors are started on no load. Squirrel cage motors
with reduced voltage starting are preferred.
ac drives with speed control achieved by static frequency converter may
also be used as they provide better starting conditions.
The operation of compressor is a variable torque operation. At low speeds
torque required is very low and simple control of V/f is sufficient.  
 Waste Gas Fan Drives
Function:
The preheater tower has a series of cyclone chambers through which the raw
material passes on its way to the kiln. To save energy, modern cement plants
preheat the material before it enters the kiln. The induced draft (ID) fans
extract the hot gases from the kiln, heating the raw material as it swirls
through the cyclones.
Requirements of crusher motors:
The starting torque should be limited to 120% of the full load torque.
Breakdown torque should be 200 to 250% of full load torque.
Speed variation should be between 1000 and 1500 rpm.
The motors that meet the above requirements are:
1. The motors used are of the slip-ring type.
2. The cast iron grid resistance controllers are normally used for starting and
controlling the speed of these drives, although subsynchronous converter
cascade is also used.
3. As the motors are located outdoor or in semi-outdoor locations totally
enclosed motors of TEFC are employed. The sliprings and brush gears are
totally enclosed and kept external to the motor enclosures for ease in
maintenance.
4. Due to higher frequency and finer control, thyristorized dc drives are
replacing slipring motors in fan drives too.
Rotary Kiln Drives
 Rotary Kiln Drives
Function:
Heating the rawmix to sintering temperature (up to 1450 °C) to produce
cement clinkers.
There are different types of rotary kilns depending on whether the cement is
manufactured by means of wet or dry process. But, in general, they are
tubular, slightly tilted from the horizontal and have a ring gear fitted around
them, which engages with one or two pinions. Each pinion is driven by a
variable speed motor.
Clinker Production
Process:
The rotary kiln consists of a tube made from steel plate, and lined with
firebrick. The tube slopes slightly (1–4°) and slowly rotates on its axis at
between 30 and 250 revolutions per hour. Rawmix is fed in at the upper end,
and the rotation of the kiln causes it gradually to move downhill to the other
end of the kiln. At the other end fuel, in the form of gas, oil, or pulverized
solid fuel, is blown in through the "burner pipe", producing a large concentric
flame in the lower part of the kiln tube.
As material moves under the flame, it reaches its peak temperature, before
dropping out of the kiln tube into the cooler. Air is drawn first through the
cooler and then through the kiln for combustion of the fuel. In the cooler the
air is heated by the cooling clinker, so that it may be 400 to 800 °C before it
enters the kiln, thus causing intense and rapid combustion of the fuel.
Requirements of kiln motors:
Power requirement is very high.
Speed ratio control is 1:10.
Starting torque should be in the range of 200 to 250% of full load torque.
The acceleration of the drive should be completed in about 5 seconds.
For small periods an overload capacity of 200-250% may be required.
The motors that meet the above requirements are:
 ac commutator motors and Ward Leonard controlled dc motors.
 Due to requirements of higher output ratings and of speed range in excess
of 1:2, higher capital cost, lower efficiencies and greater maintenance
problems; the commutator motors and Ward-Leonard drives have been
superseded by dc motors with static supply.
 For higher power ratings, cycloconverter-fed synchronous motor is
deployed as the drive motor.
 To cope up with increasing kiln capacities, twin motor dc drives are used.
Two dc motors with separate pinions drive the same gear wheel at the
periphery of the kiln drum.
Cement Mill Drives
 Cement Mill Drives
Function:
A cement mill is a drive used to grind the hard, nodular clinker from
the cement kiln into the fine grey powder that is cement. Most cement is
currently ground in ball mills and also vertical roller mills which are more
effective than ball mills.
Process:
Raw materials are fed to the mill in right proportion with the help of
weighfeeders. The output of the ball mill is taken to a separator, which
separates out unacceptable coarse cement. The acceptable product is fed to the
cyclone which separates the air dust from the cement.
1. Weighfeeders:
A separate drive motor (dc series motor) for each raw material is used to
drive the feed table under which strain gauges are placed for measurement
of weight of material. The strain gauges are deformed by the load
consequently modifying the resistances. This unbalances the Wheatstone
Bridge giving an output voltage which changes the speed of the drive.
capacity(%) = loading(%) * speed(%)
If the loading increases, then speed will decrease. In modern cement mills,
a microprocessor-based control scheme is used.
2. Mill Drives:
Requirements of mill drives are:
High starting torque. The starting current must be limited to a maximum
of two times the full load value to minimize voltage dips.
An overload capacity of 50% for 1 min occurring for 4 times an hour.
Three starts from cold conditions and two consecutive starts from hot
conditions per hour against full load.

The drive system used keeping in mind the above requirements are:
1. 3 phase slip-ring induction motors of 6.6 kV; though salient pole
synchronous motor can also be employed.
2. Liquid resistance starters are employed to start the motor and bring it
upto full speed.
3. Gear boxes are also attached in order to get the desired mill speed of about
15 rpm.
4. In order to improve the power factor of the line current drawn, high
voltage capacitors of adequate reliability and automatic capacitor control
switchgear and circuit breakers are used.
TWIN Drives: Due to large ratings (above 300 kW) required for the
drive and due to the limitations of the availability of large size gear boxes
and motors, twin drives are employed. The two motors have identical
capacity as also their liquid resistance starters.
GEARLESS Drives: The rotor is shrunk onto the mill and the air gap
between the rotor and the overlapping stator is maintained by levitation
using sophisticated electronic closed loop control. Variable frequency drives
are obtained by the use of cycloconverters and/or dc link converters. This
arrangement completely dispenses with the gearbox which is generally the
source of maintenance problems.
3. Separator:
A converter-fed dc motor/variable speed slip ring induction motor can be
employed. The speed is controlled between 150-300 rpm to adjust the
fineness of the cement product. The speed range is 1:10 by armature voltage
control at constant torque.
4. Blower Drive:
Squirrel cage induction motors with start/stop push buttons, overload relay,
fuses and contactors are used for all blower drives.
5. Cyclone:
The drive used is usually a slip-ring induction motor.
Thank You!