Case Studies
Dakota Cement: Rapid City, South Dakota
Dakota Cement contracted Western Refractory to demolish the existing vessels and refractory in its 4-stage preheater. After the new low pressure drop vessels were installed, Western installed the new refractory in the twin stage 1 cyclones, state 2-3-4 cyclones, a new riser, and in the line calciner. A total of 1769.04 t of brick and castable refractory were installed. The project proved to be very challenging, as not only was it the middle of winter, but weather conditions were worse than usual and the plant experienced two and a half weeks of -30°F temperatures. However, through the strategic placement of turbo heaters it was possible to create an environment in which very little production was lost due to adverse weather conditions.
Southdown Cement: Lyons, Colorado
Southdown Cement contracted Western Refractory to make major modifications to the combustion chamber of their preheater, including the demolition of 20 ft of the cone section refractory. After adding 20 ft of vertical riser to the combustion chamber, a new anchor system, forms, and castable refractory were installed. Work in the cooler area included the demolition of the steel and refractory of the tertiary air take off and ‘bullnose’ areas. New steel air-cooled beams were installed for the support as well as new castable refractory. The refractory installation consisted of a total 793.8 t of refractory.
Capitol Cement: San Antonio, Texas
Capitol Cement contracted Western Refractory to demolish the existing steel and refractory from the 4-stage preheater and work hand in hand with the owner's parent company, Zachary Construction, to reinstall the new low-pressure vessels. The company also lined the very first down draft calciner and deSOx system ever installed. Western carried out a major retrofit to the existing cooler, mainly to oversize teh tertiary air duct to take off. This project required 1905.12 t of refractory materials with just over 453.6 t of castable in the down draft calciner alone, which consisted of a 13.5 in. thick three part lining.
Ash Grove Cement: Lemington, Utah
Fuller awarded Western Refractory a contract to complete the same scope of work as the Dakota Cement project, with the exception that a complete calciner was installed pre shutdown on a new structure. The refractory construction was completed using brick where possible, castable was installed below stage 2, and gunite above stage 2. A total of 1859.76 t of refractory was installed.
Holnam Cement: Fort Collins, Colorado
Holman Cement contracted Western Refractory to retrofit its Polysius preheater which Western had installed as new several years previously. The project involved the installation of a venture section in the calciner, along with a new heat exchanger, two new dedusting cyclones, and a hot air duct. Refractory linings consisted of two component gunite linings everywhere with the exception of the riser feeder shelf, which was formed and casted. 1542.24 t of refractory were installed during the course of this project.
Holnam Cement: Devil's Slide, Utah
Holnam, Inc. called upon Western Refractory to install refractory linings in the new Devil’s Slide Plant in Morgan, Utah. This is a new plant with a 5-stage preheater and pyro top calciner, a 4.5 m kiln incorporating the 1st pendulum type cooler by IKN. Western played an intricate role in this project. The design of the refractory system was worked on for weeks, as well as procurement and installation. The preheater was bricked everywhere possible. Below stage 2 was formed and poured and above stage 2 was gunite. The entire cooler was formed and poured. The tertiary air duct was bricked end to end with three mitres and one 95° elbow. A total of 65 men worked on the project at its peak, using 3311.28 t of refractory material, of which 1134 t were speciality monolithics.
Veolia Environmental Services: Port Arthur, Texas
We have a customer in Port Arthur Texas that thermally incinerates waste. We were scheduled for a shutdown for them in early October. On Saturday the 13th of September the Gulf Coast was hit with a hurricane that devastated this region wiping out their intrastructure.
We had been in constant contact with our contact person and they had shutdown and evacuated the plant site. On Wednesday the 17th we had been informed of the devastation that they had suffered. Their was at that time no access to the facility all roads were blocked with debris and etc. On the 18th we had devised a plan to get the personnel to plant site that would be required to make repairs. We were faced with many obstacles the 1st was somewhere to house and support the personel.
We took in travel trailers, generators, food, water, and spplies to support our people and set up a camp.
We were able to make needed repairs for plant before power and water were restored saving the customer valuable time and money once infrastructure was repaired.
With a Hurricane of this magnitude and a geographical location their were a lot of issues their were alligators snakes and other swamp critters that had to be dealt with daily, fresh water had to be trucked in to support refractory repairs and of coarse generators that could support our equipment and their was a great lack of this kind of equipment in the region.
Repairs were completed ahead of schedule and a happy client resulted.
|
