ISSN: 0149-6123
Page Count: 7

The Grace Factor: A New Tool for Cement Industry Process Control Engineers
Welch, PW
District manager, W. R. Grace & Company, TX

Abstract

A method for mill control and supervision is described that is based on measurement of the mill horsepower consumption and the bulk density of the material being ground. Control by horsepower is shown to be possible and to be a more fundamentally based scheme than other commonly used systems. A monitoring and control system is discussed that uses the relationships described to provide a visual indication of mill loading conditions that can be used effectively by nontechnically trained personnel for manual mill control or as an automatic signal for direct control interlock with programmable controllers.

Keywords:
trends, voids, bulk density, process control, cement mill, optimum horsepower demand, load level, trend line analyzer, mill retention time, circulating load, instantaneous clinker charge, mill/separator balance, Grace factor, void fill, volume loading, void space, cascading action, bypass rate, flow rate factor

Paper ID: CCA10249J
DOI: 10.1520/CCA10249J
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