Displaying items by tag: Quality

UK: Cemcor has installed a new US$7.54m bag filter at its Cookstown cement plant in County Tyrone. The system will detect signs of bag damage and isolate the affected row of bags for either online maintenance or, if the damage is minor, resealing with process dust.

The Irish News has reported that managing director David Millar said “We are forward thinking at Cemcor and understood it was time to put our money on the line and invest in the plant's efficiencies and sustainable outputs, to protect the environment around us and future-proof the plant itself."

Uzbekistan: Bekabadcement is carrying out a 'large-scale' upgrade to its 0.7Mt/yr Bekabadcement plant in Tashkent Region. The producer said that the upgrade involves a 20% capacity expansion of the plant's production line to 2500t/day. Austria-based Unitherm CemCon supplied burners for the upgraded line, while China-based Beijing Triumph International Engineering supplied heat exchanger components and a KC 4.1-0955 cooler. The upgrade also involves the installation of new kiln lining, and will transition the plant's cement production from wet to dry process. Germany-based Christian Pfeiffer previously upgraded the Bekabad cement plant's grinding unit in April 2023.

General director Vasily Korobkin "We see that (parent company) United Cement Group (UCG) is interested in the modernisation and development of the enterprise. The group adheres to international standards, so all plans for the development of the plant are built accordingly." He concluded "We expect to become a modern and successful enterprise in Uzbekistan which is capable of becoming a major player in the cement industry of Central Asia.”

India: The government is planning to introduce new quality standards for cement. Reuters has reported that the central government plans to implement the change before the end of December 2022. A government source said "Better standards help comply with international standards." It hopes that the cement sector will increase its export opportunities as a result.

France: Fives has secured a contract to supply a 65MW Pillard NOVAFLAM Evolution burner to a cement producer. The customer’s aims are to continue to maximise alternative fuel (AF) use, to improve clinker quality and to reduce NO_x emissions at its cement plant. The order also includes precalciner burners and a natural gas-powered 35MW Pillard hot gas generator, as well as valve trains and pumping systems.

Ghana: The Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) has reported discoveries of Empire Cement brand cement on sale on the open market despite neither it nor the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) having issued permits for Empire Cement to produce cement. Graphic Online News has reported that the suspect products are wrongly labelled with certification marks. GSA director general Alex Dodoo warned that this constitutes an offence.

Mexico: 200 police officers in 80 police cars arrived outside the gates of Cooperativa La Cruz Azul’s Cruz Azul cement plant in Tula, Hidalgo, on 15 December 2021, but failed to enter the plant. The El Financiero newspaper has reported that the police were following a court order to remove the company from the plant. Supervisory board president Alberto Lopez reasserted the company’s right to occupy the property in line with federal government ordinances. Lopez suggested an alleged collusion between cooperativists and Omar Fayad’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Hidalgo state government to decieve the courts.

Authorities have frozen Cooperativa La Cruz Azul’s accounts with outstanding bills of US$800,000 in electricity, gas, equipment and services bills, as well as the payroll of its 1100 workers.

Coopertiva La Cruz Azul chair Federico Sarabia said that the developments threaten the existence of the Cruz Azul plant. He said "In terms of quality, Cruz Azul’s cement exceeds the standard. At the time that Cruz Azul disappears as a cement producer, prices will increase.”

North Korea: Manpho cement plant has increased its production capacity by 20% through ‘technical innovations.’ Korean News Service has reported that the installation of new equipment in the plant’s kiln line also improved clinker quality.

Japan: Rigaku Corporation has launched its new MiniFlex XpC high-throughput rapid x-ray diffractometer (XRD) for analysis of cement samples. The supplier says that the product is able to quickly identify variations in cement’s composition. It uses an EasyX interface and can be automated using a sample-loading robot or conveyor belt.

President and chief executive officer Toshiyuki Ikeda said “The MiniFlex XpC is a manufacturing-optimised powder diffractometer for fast and accurate quality control measurements. Using the latest developments and lessons learned from class-leading products like the Rigaku SmartLab, this compact XRD offers unrivalled performance and ease-of-use.”

Morocco: The government of Morocco has tightened cement and clinker quality standards. The Le Matin newspaper has reported that the new standards will see cement and clinker assessed on the basis of higher consistency and final product durability standards than previously.

US: ForneyVault has partnered with Command Alkon to improve the quality control process for a mutual customer, Titan Virginia Ready-Mix. The concrete producer, a subsidiary of Greece-based Titan Group, previously relied on both suppliers’ products separately. Now, ForneyVault has integrated Command Alkon ‘s quality control technology into its own data collection software. It says that the integration will benefit the concrete producer’s testing capabilities. Titan Virginia uses Command Alkon’s CommandQC software product to validate the quality for its own internal ready-mix concrete products.

Command Alkon software product owner James Shilstone said “Forney’s decision to place their data in the cloud makes it easy to interface with CommandQC. Sharing data between the two programmes eliminates the need for double entry and makes the test results available to the QC manager more quickly.” ForneyVault vice president, platform development Scott Grumski added “Integration with Command Alkon’s software allows Titan’s quality control technician to lose the clipboard and pencil... The integration partnership reduces risk and advances compliance for Titan’s quality assurance programme.”