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Fan Build Up Control

The three preheater fans at three cement plants in India were experiencing severe vibration due to coating buildup on the fan vanes. This coating would break off, causing unbalance that required stopping production for 8-12 hours to clean. Real-time fan balancers were installed to continuously monitor and automatically correct any unbalance, minimizing vibration in seconds. This increased time between cleanings from 40-50 days to over 100 days, reducing production losses and increasing plant productivity and availability.

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Safrin Sangia
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89 views

Fan Build Up Control

The three preheater fans at three cement plants in India were experiencing severe vibration due to coating buildup on the fan vanes. This coating would break off, causing unbalance that required stopping production for 8-12 hours to clean. Real-time fan balancers were installed to continuously monitor and automatically correct any unbalance, minimizing vibration in seconds. This increased time between cleanings from 40-50 days to over 100 days, reducing production losses and increasing plant productivity and availability.

Uploaded by

Safrin Sangia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Management

A reliable solution to process fan vibration due to coating buildup


Our Business
Operations

Real-time fan balancers

Three plants of Ambuja Cements at Ambujanagar, The three preheater fans of kilns at Ambujanagar
India had been experiencing problems of severe draw dust-laden hot gases from the preheaters, and
vibration due to coating buildup on the vanes some hot dust particulate sticks to the vanes. The
of preheater fans. The problem was resolved by particulate buildup forms a hard coating on the fan
installing real-time fan balancers. vanes; the thickness can go up to an inch. Due to
various reasons such as temperature changes, some
of the coating breaks off from the surface of vanes,
resulting in severe unbalance of the fan rotor, causing
heavy vibration.

Avoiding production loss


The kiln has to be stopped for cleaning the heavy
coating on the vanes; this procedure usually means
eight to twelve hours of production loss, and also
energy wastage, hitting the plant's bottom line. In ad-
dition to production loss, there is accelerated bearing
and equipment wear, and frequent stopping of kilns
will also reduce the useful life of the kiln refractory,
calling for an early brick lining replacement.

In 2009 a first electromagnetic type real-time fan


balancer from Lord Corporation was installed
at Ambujanagar. After observing the performance
for one year the other two preheater fans were also
equipped with these balancers. The system is de-
signed to continuously monitor and correct any
Balancer mounted on fan shaft. unbalance of the fan. Balance corrections are made
automatically or manually, minimizing vibration
caused by unbalance in seconds.

Principle of operation
The balance ring uses two counterweighted rotors
that are positioned to create a net correction vector
to offset any unbalance in the machinery. The coun-
terweighted rotors are held in place using permanent
magnets that are fixed to the rotors. These magnets
create a holding torque which prevents the rotors
from slipping during normal operation, ramp-up, or
coast down. The system also remains in position in
an unpowered state for fail-safe operation.

The balancer is permanently fixed on the rotating


shaft, and it is surrounded by a stationary coil that
powers it. Salient features of the system are as follows:

The fan balancer being installed at the Ambuja cement plant.

10 Holcim News 2/12 Contents


Operations Management
Industrious: The people behind the portraits
What I like at Holcim: Holcim Vietnam has a good working environment.
I am most impressed with the good cooperation among colleagues.
The company sets clear objectives and communicates
them to the employees. I am satisfied with my
salary and benefits, and effective training
programs help me develop my competencies.
I like the company’s community-support
activities because they allow me to contribute
to the development of the society I belong to.

Name: Hoa Nguyen Khanh


Company: Holcim Vietnam
Function: Plant manager Concrete
Years of service: 5

Balance corrections are made by sensing imbalance The cost of a balancer is approximately USD 90,000,
and adjusting accordingly. including installation and commissioning charges. The
Sensors monitor vibration levels and transmit payback period at Ambujanagar comes to approxi-
information to the controller. mately six months, considering the cost of production
When vibration exceeds a preset high limit or alarm, loss in a sold-out market. No major fault has been re-
the controller signals the coil(s) to pulse power to ported to date and system availability is 100 percent.
the balancer(s) to make a balance correction. The balancer is maintenance free, and the only special
The correction is made by the repositioning of two requirements are to protect it from dust and to avoid
counterweighted rotors relative to each other, excessive temperatures.
located inside the rotating balancer.
Vibration levels are reduced as the rotors are moved
until the controller senses that vibration levels
have dropped below a preset low limit. Mahesh N. Vala
Head PM Cell
The rotors are repositioned in seconds to complete
Ambuja Cements
the balance correction while the fan continues India
operating without a forced shutdown.
The system monitors and controls 1X (shaft
synchronous) vibration levels.
[email protected]
Increased plant productivity
Before installing the real-time fan balancers, the kilns Jesingbhai D Parmar
Plant Manager
had to be stopped every 40 to 50 days for cleaning the
Ambuja plant
fan, which resulted in plant downtime of approximately Ambuja Cements
eight to twelve hours. After installing the balancers, India
the cleaning interval increased to over 100 days,
leading to increased plant productivity and availability.
[email protected]

Ramarao Sukuru
Key benefits of the balancing system Plant Manager
Gaj plant
Increases production uptime Ambuja Cements
Optimizes equipment life (bearings, motors, India
seals, etc.)
Maximizes asset availability
Rapid payback of installed cost [email protected]

Contents Holcim News 2/12 11

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