HammerTek Smart Elbow® deflection elbows cure plugging woes

April 15, 2015 by Miaja Cornelius

Essroc Materials Inc. is a wet-process cement plant in Frederick, Md., producing nearly 400,000 tons of cement annually using two 400-foot rotary kilns.

Dust produced during kilning of the cement must be removed from the exhaust gases — and Essroc’s kilns produced 120 tons of dust every 24 hours. While portion of this dust is sod for use in various industrial and agricultural applications, the majority must be moved pneumatically and recycled through the kilns via a process called insufflation. The rate of insufflation is controlled by the central control operator and is dictated by the chemistry of the cement being produced in the kiln.

Therein lay the problem, as they say.

The pneumatic conveying lines were constantly plugging and surging. Upgrading the system’s pumps and compressors didn’t help — the long-radius sweep elbows were being worn away by the abrasive dust.

Eager to solve the plugging, surging and elbow wear problems, production manager Tom Gibbons replaced the conventional long-radius sweep elbows with 5″ cast iron Smart Elbow deflection elbows in 1986.

Since the elbow upgrades, process engineer Ken Gillespie notes that elbow wear has been completely eliminated. The system only experiences occasional plugging — and then, only when insufflation rates are very high.

“This eliminated most of the remaining line-plugging problems,” said Gillespie. “The wear problem was eliminated completely. As far as I can tell, none of the Smart Elbow products have been replaced for any reason.”

Thanks to the installation of HammerTek Smart Elbow deflection elbows, maintenance and insufflation system downtime has been dramatically reduced, translating into greater profitability for the company.

To find out how HammerTek Smart Elbow deflection elbows can save your company expensive repairs and downtime while increasing efficiency and productivity, visit us at HammerTek.com.