Saving time on turnaround maintenance - recent advances in monolithic refractories technology and installation methods

摘要

As time pressure on maintenance shutdowns at modern, high output cement plants increases, monolithic refractory lining solutions have become widely accepted by the industry, both for repairs and as original lining concepts -particularly in the preheater system, kiln hood and cooler. They offer many advantages in terms of installation time and performance, however one major consideration is always the time taken to fully cure and dry out the structure. In addition to the emergence of material technologies suited to more rapid methods of installation, new materials have now been developed with a different bonding system, such that the lining does not require any curing time and all the water can be removed at low temperatures. As a result of both areas of development, a plant can potentially resume production more quickly after a maintenance shutdown, and follow a heating up profile more suited to the bricks in the kiln. In addition, where it is not possible to control closely the heating up rate these materials offer better insurance against unexpected and unwelcome steam-induced disruption. This paper describes the product development principles and those of the dry-out process, and gives examples of typical applications for the new materials now available.