Controlling grinding aid in cement industry

Oct 13, 2022

A major cement producer chose Flowrox™ metering pumps to control grinding aid in cement industry. The process is pumping poly glycol acid. The Flowrox pumps have replaced mechanical diaphragm pumps and have proved better overall reliability and accurate dosing.

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Replacing mechanical diaphragm pumps

Grinding aids such as glycol, amines, and acetic acid help cement particles to flow efficiently. This reduces grinding energy and results in increasing product throughput. These grinding aids are added to the cement prior to the final grinding circuit.

For controlling the grinding aid to the circuit, the customer was using individual diaphragm pumps and was not satisfied due to inconsistent dosage control and pump unreliability. Flowrox metering pumps were chosen to pump poly glycol acid and replacing mechanical diaphragm pumps instead.

Flowrox metering pumps proved to be a better option because they have a high turndown ratio. This makes it ideal for finite control and proper dosing to the system. Reliability improved as well, because the only repair item in Flowrox metering pumps is the tube. Providing a value-added solution, Flowrox packaged the pumps as a skid to include the chemical feed tank.

The end result

The plant was very pleased with the complete grinding agent delivery system. The Flowrox pumps were delivered as a plug-and-play skid and ready to start up as soon as the electrical and piping connections were made.

Expert knowledge paired with decades of experience

Flowrox products have been chosen to more than 5500 dry and wet cement applications which boost the process performance in several hundred cement plants. Metering pump solutions can be also found in various chemical dosing systems like metallic salts, sodium hypochlorite and its derivates and many more.

Text originally published in 2018, and slightly updated in April 2022, due to the company name change to Valmet. As of the 1^st of April 2022, Flowrox brand belongs to Valmet.

Text by Todd Loudin. For more information about Flowrox pumps, contact sean.gagnon@valmet.com

Tags

Availability / reliability
Construction
Customers' voice
Flow control
Flowrox
Health and safety
Maintenance and operations
Process performance
Sustainability / CO2 reduction

In a nutshell

Customer: A major cement producer in USA
Products: Flowrox metering pumps packaged as a skid.
Process application: Replacing mechanical diaphragm pumps
Benefits: High turndown ratio, reliability, complete grinding agent delivery system

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