Lafarge Davenport replaced microphone on ball mills

A testimonial from Lafarge Davenport:

The Davenport Lafarge Plant is very satisfied with our new KIMA‘s SmartFill and MillMaster systems.

Your group is very knowledgeable and has been excellent to work with throughout our project. I will certainly recommend the SmartFill system as a replacement for older microphone technology commonly used on ball mills, and the MillMaster control system to maximize the benefits of accurate mill level control.

Since operating and controlling our grinding mill with the MillMaster and SmartFill systems from KIMA Echzeitsysteme GmbH, we were able to optimize our grinding process in terms of:

1. Better information to make process decisions.
   • There was a plan to add additional block-off plates in the diaphragm, because it was believed that C1 was under-loaded and C2 was full. The day we commissioning the SmartFill device, we found that C1 was full and that C2 was only 60% loaded. We later took out all of the existing blanks in the diaphragm to allow better flow into C2 and have the level up around 85-95% now.
   • It is now easier to see the effects of process changes because the mill loading is kept constant.
   • We were able to reduce grinding aid usage while increasing production.
2. More stable operation resulting in more consistent lab results.
3. Less wear on liner and balls. We have mostly eliminated the loose liner bolts that we were dealing with routinely. This is probably attributed to less direct impact on the liners, because of stable mill loading.
4. Reduce Kw per ton of cement.
5. Increased production.
6. The SmartFill system has had no required maintenance except initial setup and calibration.
7. The commissioning and the on-going optimization of the MillMaster system was taken care of by KIMA engineers over VPN connection, freeing up manpower previously devoted to LUCIE optimization.