Every plant manager is constantly faced with the challenge of increasing overall equipment effectiveness through better availability, higher plant runtime and reduced downtime.
In the case of the cement industry; refractory maintenance is an unavoidable, time-consuming and costly outage. One of the most common issues facing cement manufacturers is the lack of proper curing and heat-up of the unshaped refractories after application, this leads to much, and often overlooked, damage to the refractories, including spalling, thermal shock, hot spots and premature failure. The ultimate result could be increased downtime, added expenditure on refractories, budget overruns, higher maintenance costs and a reduced bottom line.
Precast refractory shapes have been a developed to combat such issues. Precast refractory shapes are complete refractory sections that are manufactured off-site under controlled conditions and dry-out in purpose-designed production facilities under stringent quality control measures. The production processes ensures accurate moulds and final casting of special refractory shapes for enhanced product service life. Some of the modular designed precast refractory shapes that have been widely adopted in many cement plants include the following:
Precast cooler and bullnose
Precast kiln hood
Precast cyclone roofs
Precast burner pipes
In addition, modular designed precast refractory shapes significantly reduce the refractory maintenance duration and projects costs in the following ways:
Shortened pyrosystem cool-down period as modular panels can be removed from the outside without personnel entry.
No need for on-site demolition as the worn-out section is removed from the system and instantly replaced with a complete new modular section.
Anchor installation is performed on the precast block off-site.
Casting is performed off-site in a controlled environment and the completed spare precast block is stored on-site awaiting final installation.
Shorter and safer installation.
Final heat-up is faster and shorter as the precast blocks are procured.