The French Lafarge-group founded in 1833 are one of the leading cement producers, at it’s new and largest plant at Laenders they are most certainly the market leader. At this plant lime is ground into very fine particles mixed with other materials and conveyed pneumatically to silos. The raw material is then put in the furnaces where the heat produces “cement clinkers”, these clinkers are stored in silos, after cooling, until required then ground to a very fine cement and mixed with various materials depending on the application.
For all these processes compressed-air is required: the brown coal dust burnt in the furnaces is transported pneumatically by means of Aerzen Screw Compressors and Aerzen Positive Displacement blowers for the combustible air in the ovens and also for transporting the raw materials to the furnaces as well as breaking down and mixing in the silos, this process is served by a positive displacement blower and a Delta Hybrid, in continuous operation with a third blower on standby and a fourth available for other tasks.
The compressed-air for raw material handling and further mixing is produced by four large oil-free, air cooled Aerzen Screw Compressors model VM537. One compressor supplies the compressed-air for transport, two units for the even mixing of the materials and one unit as backup.
“This new positive displacement compressor has been running in continuous operation without any problems since its commissioning and supplies compressedair with highest pressure 0,8 bar”, reports Günther Schlimm, technical group leader of production plants.
