Digital solutions for the cement industry
Tap the full potential of your cement plants
Digital solutions
For many branches of industry, the Internet of Things (IoT) is seen as a spearhead for a revolution in manufacturing. IoT is an essential part of an initiative called Industrie 4.0 – an initiative of the German automation industry. Its objective is to define the way forward for manufacturing companies in the Internet age. A core element is that process industries become more intelligent. Cement companies, too, can profit from digitalization which helps tackle the challenges facing the industry e.g. demand for increased productivity, efficiency, optimization and lifecycle time. Our digitalization solutions not only facilitate raw material and energy savings of up to 20 %, they simultaneously ensure highest quality. Digitalization is a journey Innomotics takes together with the cement customers.
With the help of the connected data, the automation project can be generated eliminating need of high effort of manual engineering works. These highly integrated data can be used as data source for the future plant maintenance management.
CEMAT* based on SIMATIC* PCS7, Siemens’* well-proven process control system perfectly fits to this requirement.
Optimization of production potential
The innovative process control system CEMAT on the basis of SIMATIC PCS 7 technology is the best solution for optimization of production potential in cement production. All the necessary function components are already in the system and standardized, even for special process optimization tasks. This includes optimization of the fuel supply for the oven – with fossil fuels or alternative fuels – as well as optimization of mills.
CEMAT allows a forward-looking process control that automatically gives a higher throughput while maintaining product quality. The use of energy and raw materials can be reduced substantially; quality requirements can be set at a high level and production organized in a more flexible way.
Decades long experience in the cement industry
Our products and solutions for the cement industry incorporate more than 35 years of experience and collaboration with the world’s leading cement companies. They are based on proven standards and tailored to the specific demands of your industry.
Advanced Process Control – stored knowledge for your control tasks
SIMATIC PCS 7/CEMAT includes a standard library containing a wide range of different types of Advanced Process Control (APC) control functions, making it possible to address the majority of complex closed-loop control tasks in the cement industry. This provides the user with easy access to an advanced functionality at no extra cost. Customer´s expertise can be easily integrated, planning and implementation are minimized and furthermore, the system is modular and open to future extensions and implementation of artificial intelligent solutions.
Kiln Control System
The cement manufacturing process is a highly energy-intensive process, with many unpredictable disturbances. To manage process, the operators are spending a lot of time, efforts and have to permanently monitor the process very carefully. The goal of the Kiln Control System (KCS) is to increase the quality as well as efficiency of clinker production.
Customer benefits
- Reduced workload for control personnel
- Improvement of product quality
- More efficient use/reduction of the energy consumption
- Improved lifespan of machinery due to gentler modes of plant operation
- Improved lifespan of refractory material used for the kiln lining
- Better compliance with exhaust gas regulations and other environmental requirements
- Reduction in the number of unscheduled plant downtimes
- Enhanced reliability: the optimization system ensures that the plant operates more reliably at all times
Mill Control System
The milling process in cement plants is extremely energy-intensive. there are potential energy savings available through the use of Mill Control System (MCS). The MCS is a software system that draws conclusions about the quality levels of the production plant through a knowledge-based approach using current plant data (defined measured values). The process optimization system MCS delivers continuous values for this quality parameter that can otherwise only be determined by a laboratory system at specific intervals.
Customer benefits
- Complete integration in the PCS7 with no additional hardware
- Reduction in workload for the control room operators
- Homogenizing the milling process increases grinding speed and output volume of the mills
- Improves quality of the products
- Energy consumption per ton of cement is reduced
- Smoother operation increases the lifespan of machinery
Minerals Process Analyzer – for better, data-based decision making
Minerals Process Analyzer (MPA) is a long-term achieving system which can be integrated to SIMATIC PCS 7 CEMAT or other process control systems, providing data for further analysis and evaluations. MPA helps cement manufacturers benefit from its many features for example: increased productivity by data comparison, cost saving and quality improvement through the analysis of the alarms and the integrated report system.
Process simulation – testing and optimizing ahead of time
The cement process simulator is an option to be integrated into SIMATIC PCS 7 CEMAT, enabling a realistic reconstruction of the behavior of a cement plant. The digital twin offers virtual commissioning, operator training and seeing the plant behavior by changing the process parameters before launching into real production. For the cement customers that spells safety, lower costs and higher efficiency.
Operations Intelligence – better information, better results
Operations intelligence is tailored-made solution, which base on your installations of automation and IT infrastructure. This solution will collect, analyze and present operational and business data for plant dash boarding, thereby enabling real-time performance management and decision support at higher management level.
This data transparency can help cement companies optimize their entire supply chain not only for cement production but also complete material value chain and speeds up the decision making process up via smart and connectible field devices, cloud solutions and real-time plant data. Through the comparison of assets between the plants, it enhances the visual quality of the cost factors. Needless to say, state-of-the-art solutions fulfil the industrial IT security requirements.
References - Digitalization solutions in practice
The cement industry is investing in the digitalization of processes. Find out which projects have already been implemented.
- Efficient automation: modernisation of the plants to the CEMAT system for greater reliability and efficiency
- Successful increase in production: Reliable achievement of the production target of 30 million tonnes of clinker per year
- Minimised downtime: Safe migration with maximum plant availability during modernisation
- Comprehensive scope of delivery: Around 80 automation cabinets and eight SIMATIC S7-400 control units with redundant system bus
- Advanced data processing: Data archiving and reporting with SICEMENT MIS (now Innomotics MIS)
- Optimised process control: Kiln Control System (KCS) and CEMAT Software Engineering for the entire plant
- Long-term partnership: step-by-step installation and modernisation of the automation system at the Jecheon plant since the 1990s
- Updated system: Migration of the process automation system to CEMAT V8.1 by 2018 for state-of-the-art process control
- Comprehensive scope of delivery: MIS engineering, project management, testing and commissioning - also directly on site