A mill audit serves to document the current efficiency of a grinding plant, thus creating the basis on which its objective upgrading potential is determined and measures suitable to tap it are tested. It comprises the detailed recording of the actual technical state and operating behaviour during the manufacture of products meeting quality standards. Each mill audit must furnish a reliable decision-making aid both regarding the effects of eligible technical modifications and the associated cost/benefit ratio, with particular emphasis on saving operating expenses. A mill audit thus boils down to determining and posting the economic efficiency of complementary or competing upgrading measures prior to their implementation. A mill audit typically includes a classic process analysis and implies laborious and costly special investigations, such as sampling and analyses of material flows. Its preparation, execution, evaluation and documentation require great diligence. The mill assistant software developed expressly for this purpose provides grinding plant operators with a system of matched computer-aided analysis and optimisation methods for grinding plants that allows to carry out qualified mill audits at regular intervals. The associated inspection and evaluations modules optimally support all steps that are necessary for a successful mill audit. The paper presents selected practical results achieved by applying the mill assistant software. They relate to the assessment, evaluation and optimisation of different material and grinding systems comprising finish mills and classifiers. In addition to that, new developments regarding the basic methodical principles are outlined.
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