Putting Safety · (in terms of dust) in cement production, says Vinay Pathak, Senior General...

INDIA’S FIRST & ONLY BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR INDIAN CEMENT INDUSTRY VOLUME 34 • August 2019 • NO 1

www.IndianCementReview.com `150

Feature│Market Watch Instant Subscription

®

Preventive OSH is gaining popularity among companies, as that proves to be a business case for them when huge costs and reputation are at stake on the flipside.... pg 28

SafetyPutting

AheAd of Production

www.IndianCementReview.com22 | INDIAN CEMENT REVIEW | August 2019

COVER STORY Occupational Safety

Preventive OSH is gaining popularity among cement companies, as that proves to be a business case for them when huge costs and reputation

worldwide, 2.78 million workers die each year as a result of occupational injuries and illnesses. Of those, approximately 2.4 million are linked to work-related disease. The total cost of illnesses, injuries and deaths was 3.94 per cent of the global GDP, or $2.99 trillion. According to another estimate, the figure is 10-20 per cent of their GDP for Asian nations.

Exposure to dust and high temperatures, contact with allergic substances, and noise exposure can be defined as hazards associated with health; while falling/impact with objects; hot surface burns; and transportation, working at height, slip/trips/falls can be defined as hazards associated with safety.

MANUFACTURING HAZARDSWhile the stages of core processes of cement

manufacturing are mining of limestone, limestone crushing/grinding, fuel preparation, burning of raw meal, cement grinding, material handling, packing and transportation of raw material and finished goods, Sanjay Joshi, Chief Manufacturing Officer,

PUTTING SAFETY AHEAD OF PRODUCTION

Focus on occupational safety and health (OSH) is increasing in India, while it is at a long way to go before it reaches the global best practices. However, cement industry in India, being a highly organised industry, is much ahead of

several other sectors, though it is yet to catch up with the best.

Though big organisations are doing better or willing to do even better in safety aspect, the challenge lies in bringing the organisations and enterprises at the bottom of the pyramid – micro, small, and medium enterprises, where awareness of critical importance of occupational safety and health is very low.

International Labour Organization (ILO) Director - General Guy Ryder said during the opening ceremony of the XXI World Congress on Safety and Health at Work on September 3, 2017, at the global level, the impact of not investing in Safety nearly equals to the combined gross domestic product of 130 poorest countries in the world.

ILO also unveiled estimates showing that,

www.IndianCementReview.com August 2019 | INDIAN CEMENT REVIEW | 23

COVER STORYOccupational Safety

Nuvoco Vistas Corp Ltd, classified major hazardous areas into five - Mining of limestone, material handling and crushing/grinding, clinkerisation process, coal handling in clinkerisation process, and uncontrolled fire. (See interview in the following pages)

Concrete manufacturing process has its own areas of potential hazard - Inside the concrete plant, where concrete is manufactured; during transport of concrete by ‘transit mixers’ from plant to various construction sites; and at the construction sites where the concrete is delivered by static or mobile pumps, says Prashant Jha, Chief Concrete and Aggregates, Nuvoco Vistas Corp. Ltd.

If one has to classify potential hazards in cement and concrete industries based on the severity of impact, dust emissions are one of the most significant impacts of cement manufacturing and associated with handling and storage of raw materials (including crushing and grinding of raw materials), solid fuels, transportation of materials (e.g. by trucks or conveyor belts), kiln systems, clinker coolers, and mills, including clinker and limestone burning and packaging/bagging activities. Packaging is the most polluting process (in terms of dust) in cement production, says Vinay Pathak, Senior General Manager & Subject Matter Expert – APAC Region, Personal Safety Division, 3M India Ltd.

Harmful gases and vapours, wet concrete, and high heat & thermal effects, particularly in raw mill and preheater tower, hot clinker, precipitator and bypass dust and hot cement, follow dust emissions in these manufacturing processes, besides several physical hazards occurring in the process of movement of goods.

REMEDIAL MEASURESGiven the huge cost OSH accidents or events in

manufacturing plants can cause and reputation risk involved, cement manufacturers are taking preventive measures by adhering to compliance measures meticulously to safeguard their employees’ safety and health.

“All the areas in the plants are surveyed and signages have been displayed about the hazard and a safety manual is also provided to the employees. Workers carry out a daily cleaning procedure along with changing of bag filters as per OEMs manual. As a protocol, plant personnel need to wear PPEs, PPS-2 nose mask, earmuffs at high noise areas and aluminium suits in hot zones before carrying any process,” says Ujjwal Batria, Chief Operating Officer, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) (See interview)

Dalmia cement has also built green zones across

the plant vicinity and at different points to minimise the impact on the environment. Water cooler points with rest shelters are provided across all plants and ORS is provided during summer season.

Effective control measures help us to achieve our mission of zero harm, Nuvoco claims, while listing the measures they have taken to avoid or control various hazards in mining and transportation, burn injury during clearing of blocked cyclone, and in coal shop, fine coal bin and bag houses. Its concrete plants are established considering engineering and administrative control of all hazards.

As an effective hazard prevention and management strategy, “health and safety policy should be adapted with other policies of the company. Additionally, risk management policy of company should be developed, and risk assessment should be performed regularly and efficiently,” says Pathak. 3M is a leading personal protection equipment (PPE) manufacturer for cement and concrete manufacturing plants as well.

CONCLUSIONThere is no doubt that benefits outweigh monetary

cost and reputation risk for companies and physical pain and disruption in life of employees. So, it is imperative that companies embrace safe working practices and the mindset shift should happen from ‘Production first, Safety later’ to ‘Safety-first productivity’.

Though the willing bigger companies have mastered the art of internal communication relating to potential hazards, reporting of hazards by companies is yet to be streamlined. To evolve appropriate strategies in OSH, reasonable amount of data is necessary. Regulatory mechanism needs to be tightened to ensure this happens.

About a year back, the then Director General, National Safety Council, VB Sant said at a seminar “If you take a scale of 1-10 and if your goal is to achieve 10, I think we are between two to three only, if one is being honest about it and in the light of measures adopted in advanced countries.”

Sant had urged that OSH targets should be linked to various government schemes for building a robust safety culture in corporate entities as part of promoting ‘Make in India’ (MII) scheme. MII was launched in September 2014 to make the country a global manufacturing hub. MII can be made successful only by ensuring that manufacturing is also ‘Safe in India’.

- B.S. SRINIVASALU REDDY


COVER STORY Interview

process, the task of preventing and controlling fire remains a priority. Combustible material like fossil fuel including alternate fuel (AF), PP bags, lubrication and hydraulic oils inside equipment, spare part in warehouse (belts, rubber hoses, conveyor belting) are essential for cement manufacturing.

Prashant Jha on concrete segment: Potential hazards are associated mainly in three ways, namely:I. Inside the concrete plant, where concrete is

manufactured II. During transport of concrete by ‘transit mixers’

from plant to various construction sites III. At the construction sites where the concrete is

delivered by static or mobile pumps.The potential hazards inside the plant are mainly

during the activities related to plant mixer chipping, confined space work, electrical, working at height, loader movement, unguarded rotating parts of machines, conveyor operation.

“We have won awards for ensuring personal safety in plants”What are the potential hazards that have to be guarded against in the process of cement and concrete manufacturing?

Sanjay Joshi on cement manufacturing: Main (core) processes of cement manufacturing are mining of limestone, limestone crushing/grinding, fuel preparation, burning of raw meal, cement grinding, material handling, packing and transportation of raw material and finished goods. Potential hazards in various cement manufacturing processes are mentioned below:

Mining of limestone: Potential hazards in mining process are explosion, hit by flying rocks during blasting, fall of limestone boulder during overhang boulder handling, collision between the vehicle and with structures etc and vehicle topling.

Material handling and crushing/grinding: Different size of material, including fine dust of raw meal and cement are transported. The challenges of dust emission from the transfer points and process are managed by installing bag filters. Crushing and grinding operations generate noise which has health impact on the people working in the area.

Clinkerisation process: The heart of cement manufacturing, it is where powdered raw meal is burned up to 1,480oC to form clinker. Hot meal and hot dusty gases (200°C to 1,000°C) are present in the system. They can come out of the process momentarily due to process disturbance and create a risk of serious injury or fatality (with potential damage to plant and production loss).

Coal handling: Clinkerisation process requires fine coal for continuous burning of raw meal. The coal is grounded in fine particle and stored in fine coal bin. There is potential hazard of explosion in coal shop and fine coal bin. Any explosions will cause extensive damage to plant with significant production loss; damage to property and can lead to fatality.

It remains a major cause in accidental loss of lives and/or property. With high heat being at the core of manufacturing

Prashant JhaChief Concrete and Aggregates,

Nuvoco Vistas Corp

“Nuvoco is well known for following HSE procedures,

which are related to the company’s core value of Care.”

Sanjay Joshi

Nuvoco Vistas Corp


COVER STORYInterview

loading points and pathways/haulage roads, if observed, it will be removed in advance to avoid fall on equipment. Limestone is transported using dumpers with full payload capacity. This results into possibility of toppling and collision of dumpers. In order to control this hazard, we have implemented no overloading policy of dumpers and robust vehicle maintenance system. Vehicles are fitted with GPS to track over- speeding. Ensure Defensive Driving Training (DDT) trained operators are deployed. It is advisable to use fatigue sensors, anti collision sensors and rear view cameras.

No. 1 priority is to control the burn injury during clearing of blocked cyclone to eliminate the fire and burn hazard. Installation of automatic cleaning devices like air cannons, Instrumentation for blockage detection, automatic interlocking to stop the feed after detecting cyclone block are some of the measured to reduce the tendency of blockage and its severity. In case of blockage, it is very important to ensure trained teams are available to handle the situation with suitable personal protection equipment (PPE). These operations are supervised by senior management team of plant to get the job done safely.

To control the potential hazard of explosion in coal shop, fine coal bin, bag houses etc., process controls play an important role. Some of the protection systems provided by Nuvoco in coal shop are control instrumentation like pressure, temperature, oxygen detectors etc., with alarm and tripping at predefined set points. Purging of inert gas system is provided to control fire and explosion. Quick acting valves are installed to isolate bag filter area and to reduce the impact of explosion among other areas.

Prashant Jha on concrete: Plants are established considering engineering and administrative control of all hazards like fixing of fool-proof captive keys in mixers, adequate guarding of rotating machines and machine parts, proper electrical systems with RCCB / ELCB with double earthing, efficient layout and circulation for vehicle movement etc. Every employee is trained and explained the hazards in their respective fields before engaging to work. All standard operating procedures (SOPs) and rules are clearly communicated and followed by the people.

What is the equipment you are using for improving the safety in cement / concrete manufacturing environment?

Sanjay Joshi: We use best quality equipment for execution like boom lift/cherry picker for safe access to the work area, erection of scaffolding for WAH, use of high pressure water jet pump to clear cyclone

During transport of concrete through transit mixer, potential hazards are related to high speed, sharp turning, driver fatigue, driver anticipation, and unsafe behavior of road users etc., which may result in collusion/ roll over.

At customer sites the potential hazards are mainly related to work at height, especially during pipeline erection/ dismantling, Electrical, high pressure pump operation, hitting of flexible concrete delivery hose, poor housekeeping and inadequate illumination.

What are the safety measures cement/ concrete companies have to take in their plants?

Sanjay Joshi on manufacturing: Effective control measures help us to achieve our mission of zero harm. To control risk especially in mines it is recommended to substitute explosive material with less explosive ones like Site Mix Emulsion (SME)/ANFO/cartridge. Handling of explosives is done by authorized and certified persons under proper supervision. Detailed laid down procedures including misfire handling if any are being followed. To control the risk of flying rocks, blasts are designed to ensure minimum amount of flying rocks and distances. It is ensured that nobody is within 500M of the blasting area during blasting. Probability of fall of overhung material on equipment and human is reduced by systematic inspection of rock stability before start of mining. Ensure no overhang material near the

Fire safety: Emergency prepreadness



jamming in preheater, line detector to detect the underground live electrical cable, use different types of PPEs and Energy Isolating devises.

Prashant Jha: In concrete mainly Energy Isolation method is used to isolate all hazardous energy during maintenance of the equipment by following fool-proof LOTOTO (Lock Out / Tag Out / Try Out) system.

What are the measures cement/ concrete companies have to take to guard manpower against dust, heat, particles and noise pollution?

As a responsible organisation, Nuvoco regularly monitor dust, heat and noise pollution for identifying exposure and accordingly immediate control measures are taken. Statutory requirements for monitoring ambient and stack emissions are in place and are maintained as per required standards.

Sanjay Joshi: Dust control measures:

Dust Masks are provided to all Ventilation systems are installed in conjunction

with hoods and at conveyor transfer points Drop heights are minimised by the use of telescopic

chutes; Water sprinkling is done on roads to eliminate

fugitive dust emission; B/F & ESP’s are used in cement manufacturing

to control/collect dust during manufacturing process. These dusts are re- circulated back into the system.Heat control measures: Clinkerisation area is

identified as hot area. Entry is restricted in these

areas for authorized persons to minimize the exposure of hot environment. Appropriate signage like “Hot surface, Do not touch” are installed. People working in this area are provided with appropriate PPEs. Jobs are carried out under strict supervision. Sufficient drinking water provisions are made in this area.

Noise control measures: Signages are displayed to communicate the use of earplug/muff. Ear plugs are provided to all people visiting the noisy area and proper training is imparted. Periodic audiometric test is conducted of people working in noisy areas and appropriate action is taken (job rotation) based on the test report. As an engineering measure our endeavour is to procure equipment generating less noise.

Prashant Jha: The steps taken by Nuvoco to safeguard manpower against dust, heat, particles and noise pollution is eliminating them from source followed by engineered control dust collector/ exhaust system. To reduce dust emission water sprinkling is done in plants and aggregate stock area. Getting cement in bulker rather than bags also helps to control dust emission. By undertaking all these practices Nuvoco contributes in reduction of pollution as well as keep the environment clean.

What is the level of hazard communication followed in the Indian cement industry and how it compares with the international best practices?

Internationally, OSHA Hazard Communication Standard or the Right to Know Law says that you have a right to know what chemicals you are working with or around. According to OSHA, the purpose of the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) is to ensure that the hazards of all chemicals produced or imported are evaluated and details regarding their hazards are transmitted to employers and employees.

Important provisions of HCS states that employers using hazardous chemicals have four main requirements: ensuring proper chemical labeling; providing safety data sheets; training employees; and creating a written hazard communication programme.

Safety culture in Indian cement industry is improving. The workmen engaged in cement industries are trained and informed about hazard related to chemical used referring MSDS. It is envisaged that use of MSDS for all types of chemical irrespective of quantity being used in industry needs further improvement. But by and large whenever bulk chemical are being used in industry MSDS is referred and hazards are communicated to the workmen.

In concrete, the hazard communication is done

Cement kiln.


COVER STORYInterview

to the lowest level of employee before he is engaging in any task. In this communication it is ensured that workforce is aware about the existing risks and what are the control measures provided to safeguard them. Every task is being carried out by following proper Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and risk assessment. We can compare these initiatives of employee rights with international best practices. Also frequent VFL (Visible Felt Leadership) engagements are carried out at all levels by managers to improve understanding and agreement in carrying out the job safely.

What is the level of accident reporting standards adopted in India in comparison with global benchmarks? How we can bridge the gap?

Sanjay Joshi: Today the Indian cement industry have defined the procedures for reporting and recording of accidents for further course of action, so as to improve H&S performance.

Currently, the situation in Indian industry needs a lot of improvements. The statistics on occupational accidents and diseases are often incomplete because of under-reporting and do not cover all categories of workers. To obtain a fuller picture, other indicators also need to be used, such as compensation data, disability pensions and absenteeism rates, although these too provide incomplete data.

Our intention is not to promote a single and specific system across cement industry. We hope that any such system which may be established should not only be able to accommodate all information commensurate to the scale of the problems and the needs for prevention, protection and compensation, but also be effective and sustainable. The following points will bridge the gap of global benchmark for accident reporting standards:

Involvement of stakeholders Design of reporting system Institutional and administrative arrangements Maintenance and improvement of a comprehensive

national databasePrashant Jha: Every incident is taken very seriously

and is reported well within time, so that it can be investigated. Each incident act as a key learning experience for the team to avoid any future events.

standards bring in for a corporate entity?Sanjay Joshi on manufacturing: High safety

standards result in increased manhours, decrease in number of incidences, avoid loss of life, damage to

property, loss of production and good stakeholder relationship. This also builds up a robust emergency response plan as required by law. It helps to manage staff more effectively by defining acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in the workplace. Clarify functions and responsibilities at all level and guide the future actions of workers in a formal way. Ensure fulfillment of legal requirement. Basis our thrust on health and safety, recently Nuvoco has won the globally acclaimed Golden Peacock Occupational Health & Safety Award 2019, which was presented for ‘integrated approach and making significant achievements in the field of Occupational Health and Safety’.

Prashant Jha: High safety standards make the people more disciplined, helps in planning the job properly, safely and timely completion without any incidents. We also won several accolades like the prestigious OHSSAI Gold Award for maintaining high standard of Occupational Health, Safety & Environment. But the best reward is employees going back safe and happy each day. Nuvoco is well known for following HSE procedures, which is related to the company’s core value of care.

Is there a concept called ‘Total Safety Management, and if yes, what are its components?

Sanjay Joshi: Total Safety Management (TSM) is a performance-oriented approach to health and safety management system that involves the entire organisation in establishing and maintaining a healthy and safe work environment. In Nuvoco TSM includes eight elements as mentioned below:

Focus on the long-term goals for developing a robust safety system

Discard the philosophy of accepting accidents Use statistical techniques to identify sources of

accidents: system and human error Institute job skills training to meet the competency

requirement Proactive approaches such as behavioural sampling,

fishbone diagrams, flow charts, etc., are used to reveal system flaws and achieve continuous system improvement

Provide supervisors with knowledge of accident investigation techniques, root-cause analysis and statistical tools to identify gaps and plan for corrective and preventive actions for the future

Reduce fear throughout the organisation by encouraging all employees to report system defects and help find solutions

Reduce accidents by incorporating safety systems at the designing stage



TSM favours a safety control system that does not rely on frequent safety inspection. Instead, leadership and training are employed to the system to minimize dependency on control. TSM requires effective safety inspection and auditing that can identify underlying safety problems and drive continual improvement. Statistical analysis on safety performance as obtained through inspections and audit, such as accident rate or frequency of observed unsafe behaviour,

the root cause of an accident and aims at continual improvement. TSM is a truly systemic approach in which effective safety coordination is enabled, with an effective communication system that enables the free communication of ideas for improvement. There is proactive safety leadership that interacts effectively with other functions. The policy encourages personnel at all levels to participate in protecting and advancing safety. Operational practice is to use positive signals to boost safety morale for the promotion of safety culture. Operations under TSM are free of unrealistic numerical targets and are managed by facts and effective leadership that drives daily improvement to all processes at all levels.

Prashant Jha: Yes there is a concept of TSM being followed in the concrete plants in the form of:

More proactive approach development in the team rather reactive

Hands on training provision. Technical training provided to the team Designed own standards to minimise the risk of

the accidents like LOTOTO Involving Safety team in the designing/ planning

stage while establishing plants

Are there any estimates on savings due to high standard of safety measures at the national and global levels?

Sanjay Joshi: The economic impacts of failing to invest in worker health and safety is very high. The impacts range from affecting individuals, industries and even the countries with respect to damage of life, property and resources.

International Labour Organization (ILO) Director - General Guy Ryder said during the opening ceremony of the XXI World Congress on Safety and Health at Work on September 3, 2017, at the global level, the impact of not investing in safety nearly equals to the combined gross domestic product of 130 poorest countries in the world. ILO also unveiled estimates showing that, worldwide, 2.78 million workers die each year as a result of occupational injuries and illnesses. Of those, approximately 2.4 million are linked to work-related disease. The total cost of illnesses, injuries and deaths was 3.94 per cent of the global GDP, or $2.99 trillion.

Prashant Jha: firstly, accident cost is always higher by considering its direct and indirect costs. Secondly, the morale of the employees goes down in case of any accidents and thirdly, with proper planning safety increases productivity, there is no material damage loss and job execution timing is minimised.

Rescuer training.


FEATURE Lab Automation

With increasing quality consciousness among industry players to gain

stringent day by day.

Like in any industry, quality is of utmost importance in the cement industry. The quality consciousness has gone so far that the industry tries to ensure same consistency in each bag, let alone every

kilogram of the product in it. That calls for consistency in mix of materials at various stages in their quality and characteristics. At this juncture, companies are adopting the latest laboratory instrumentation and automation techniques in the cement industry.

Cement plants are well spread out at their locations making it difficult for manually monitoring various parameters and adjusting process parameters on a real-time basis. Besides, availability of skilled manpower in remote areas where many cement plants are located, and retaining them has become a difficult task for companies. So, remote operation, support from distant locations, and online assistance are all vital for the smooth operation of quality control systems in modern cement plants.

Increasing environmental regulations, need for production efficiency and cost control at every level in a growing competitive business environment, need to curtail human errors in this continuous process industry, and growing demand for consistency of product quality by customers are placing increasingly tough requirements for sample analysis quality and complexity, and for sample throughput in cement plants, are some of the other reasons for cement companies adopting automation of their laboratory ecosystem.

In the early days, sample collection and transfer it to testing laboratory and adjusting the controls based on the laboratory results were being done manually. Then came semi-automatic sampling and automatic sample preparation; followed by automation of sample transportation; then a compact and interlaced design that suits a single integrated line or a clinker grinding facility was introduced, and now, robots have entered the arena. Today, human intervention in the process has been reduced to almost nil by robots.

CHALLENGESIndian cement industry, known to be one of the

leaders in energy efficiency and emission control in the world, is also emulating global best practices in quality control. The real-time evaluation of samples is a challenge with the size of plants, and any delay in corrective action could affect a large volume of production. Some of the challenges on the way include ensuring:

and results;

Customer specs are getting tougher

Some laboratories in the industry have also adopted robotic technologies.


FEATURELab Automation

with reproducibility and high accuracy for its production units. “These equipments provide us with a much stricter control over our product’s quality parameters. To reduce human errors, auto-samplers have been installed to draw a representative and average sample. Additionally, we have cross belt analysers installed for limestone quality assurance. Expert systems are installed for efficient control of the raw mix, clinker and cement quality,” Joshi says.

Laboratory automation solutions company, Malvern Panalytical has designed cement editions to its product lines. Its newest range of X-ray diffraction diffractometers for understanding the mineralogy, is the Aeris compact XRD, which is the first benchtop XRD that is built with inputs from industry and users. “Unlike other solutions in the market, the Aeris is built with a closed box cabinet with external sample loading. This is so that cement dust does not get into the analytical chamber. Moreover, the Aeris is easy to operate, requiring minimal or no training. Plus it can handle numerous samples as customers have the option of placing it on the automation conveyor belt.”

One can choose the level of automation based on several factors like capacity of plant, integrated or grinding unit, technical skills and knowhow of plant personnel.

ADVANTAGESWhen the whole laboratory system and process

is automated unbiased results can be viewed on the central screen without any manual intervention, and the same can be transmitted anywhere automatically, making multiple and remote observation of plant operations possible.

“Above all, companies gain in terms of data consistency and reliability. Automation eliminates manual sampling, where there could instances of operator biases. For instance, there may be variances or margin of error between operators. This is especially noticed when another operator takes on the next

“Automated lab also reduces standard deviation of quality parameters in raw mix, thus resulting best utilisation of the different grade limestone (thus increasing mines life) and avoiding expensive purchased additives,” says Joshi.

“So in a nutshell, it improves cement quality consistency, maximises plant availability and stabilises operation, improves raw mix uniformity and raw mix cost,” adds Joshi.

Many of the cement manufacturing facilities are located at remote areas facing hostile environments or extreme weather conditions. Even equipment manufacturers are taking measures to meet these stringent demands. Dr Harald van Weeren, Global Manager for Cement Solutions and Hari Bhaskar, Manager for Automation Solutions, Malvern Panalytical, a division of Spectris Pte Ltd., say, “Our instruments are designed from the ground up with a hostile environment in mind. For instance, we have different product lines which are designed and calibrated for cement samples. We understand that

benchtop XRF for elemental analysis and Aeris compact XRD are designed to be closed cabinet analysis to prevent dust from interfering with the sample analysis and also expensive detectors.”

must operate constantly with only very few, short stops, the laboratory automation system should be seamlessly integrated with the plant automation system and plant Management Information System (MIS) seamlessly. “With seamless integration between Central Control Room (CCR) and Quality Control Lab, we’ve seen improved reliability. The integration between laboratory and plant automation which enabled us to get uniform quality of raw mix, stable operation with optimised oxygen control resulting increasing productivity and lower heat & power consumption,” says Sanjay Joshi, Chief Manufacturing Officer, Nuvoco Vistas Corp.

“As far as integration to plant control, our automation control system can seamlessly communicate with plant control through commonly available protocols such as OPC Clients, Modbus or Profibus etc., which are used in cement industries. The laboratory analysis flow and equipment mimics can be displayed on Plant Control panels with alarm signals and other

ROBOTSConsidering costs involved in manpower vs.

automation, balance always tilts in favour of the latter and the industry is also moving towards the same. Some laboratories in the industry have also adopted robotic technologies. “The whole operation

says Joshi.Instruments like X-ray fluorescence and X-ray

Diffractometer and optical microscopes are widely used cement industry laboratories.

Cement manufacturer, Nuvoco has procured X-Ray Fluorescence and X-Ray Diffraction equipment - B.S. SRINIVASALU REDDY


FEATURE Interview

lab automation. What are the

As far as lab automation is concerned, Nuvoco has procured X-Ray Fluorescence and X-Ray Diffraction equipment with reproducibility and high accuracy for our production units. These equipments provide us with a much stricter control over our product’s quality parameters. To reduce human errors, auto-samplers have been installed to draw a representative and average sample. Additionally, we have cross belt analysers installed for limestone quality assurance. Expert systems are installed for the efficient control of the raw mix, clinker & cement quality. All this, along with our state of art R&D lab (CDIC) we keep focus to produce innovative products in the market. Particle size distribution analysis for cement is most widely preferred for benchmarking our grinding facilities.

Now a day, most of the greenfield projects prefer fully auto-labs. The feature of this latest fully automated lab is:

point

at lab

controlThe whole operation can be done with

can choose the level of automation based on several factors like capacity of plant, integrated or grinding unit, technical skills and knowhow of plant personal.

The advantages of installing automated lab are accurate analysis and reduced human error. It also reduces standard deviation of quality parameters in raw mix thus resulting best utilisation of the different grade limestone (thus increasing mines life) and avoiding expensive purchased additives.

Uniform raw mix helps to give better control in clinker specific heat

cost of clinker. Uniform raw mix also helps to reduce operational problems like cyclone jamming, ball formation

or snowman formation. Top most quality clinker and cement can be produced if one is having automated lab installed at

consistency, maximises plant availability and stabilises operation, improves raw mix uniformity and raw mix cost. Potential savings by installing automated laboratories increases with plant size and improved consistency at each process – raw meal preparation,

“Auto labs can solve operational & process issues”


FEATURE Interview

India is the second largest producer of cement in the world. No wonder, India’s cement industry is a vital part of its economy, providing employment to more than a million people, directly or indirectly. India has a lot of potential for development in the infrastructure and construction sector and the cement industry is expected to largely benefit from it. Government’s big projects like Bharatmala Project, affordable housing projects and thrust to create start-ups will push development of cement and steel industries. Government’s ambitious plans to develop “industrial corridors and smart cities” — and its practical intentions to repair, or build new, airports, highways, schools and hospitals will boost Indian cement industry tremendously. Due to the increasing demand in various sectors such as housing, commercial and industrial construction, cement industry is expected to reach 550 - 600 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) by the year 2025.

The recent economic survey has pegged a 7 per cent GDP growth for FY20 to be led by increase in investments, declining oil prices, accommodative MPC policy helping cut lending rates and growth in rural demand. The macroeconomic fundamentals are expected to improve on the back of sustained rise in consumption, Political stability and easing of NBFC stress. Investments will remain the key driver of simultaneous growth in demand, jobs, exports and productivity.

clinker production and cement production. For an average size cement plant the payback of investment in quality might be less than two years.

Yes. As mentioned earlier, auto labs can efficiently solve many operational and process issues to increase productivity.

of raw mix, cost of production of clinker and assure consistency in product quality.

must operate constantly with only very few, short stops. With seamless integration between Central Control Room (CCR) and Quality Control Lab, we’ve seen improved reliability. The lab automation system is integrated with various other Plant automation

data is being transferred. The integration between laboratory and plant automation which enabled us to get uniform quality of raw mix, stable operation with optimised oxygen control resulting increasing productivity and lower heat & power consumption.

Approximately eight to nine months required for the complete cycle, which includes lab automation system finalisation, schedule of delivery and commissioning.

Yes, it is very much important for consistent product and better accuracy. It will also give additional benefit in cost savings and operation stability.

Auto Blaine.

Putting Safety · (in terms of dust) in cement production, says Vinay Pathak, Senior General...

Documents

Transcript of Putting Safety · (in terms of dust) in cement production, says Vinay Pathak, Senior General...