BULK MATERIALS HANDLING TEREX CEMENTS
• Controls housed in a air conditioned cabin
• State-of-the-art PLC operation
T
erex Material Handling’s Demag Service team has completed a major refurbishment and upgrade of a Demag crane system at the CEMEX cement production facility
in Rugby. The plant is CEMEX’s largest UK operation, working 24/7 and outputting over 5,000 t of cement per day. The 28 m span, 18 t SWL Demag
double girder, overhead travelling crane, equipped with a 6 t capacity bucket, is situated in the plant’s natural gypsum, synthetic gypsum and limestone store. Some 30 lorries per day deliver raw material, tipping it into reception pits. The crane moves material from the reception pits to the appropriate storage bays, before further transfer to the hoppers, which feed the plant’s mills via conveyors. CEMEX’s Operations & Technology
team recognised that heat and dust in the arduous working environment had been causing system faults. In addition, some of the crane system’s components, including the Siemens S5 PLC, were no longer supported by manufacturers. To guard against the risk of critical crane system downtime, which may impact upon production efficiency, CEMEX engineers and Demag service technicians worked together closely to engineer a solution to provide improved performance and increased capacity. The Demag crane’s existing controller
was updated with a state-of-the-art Siemens’ S7 PLC, facilitating fully automatic control via an interface with the CEMEX master control room. The refurbishment programme also transferred the control systems to a bespoke 8 x 2 m cabin, which had been prefabricated in Germany and delivered to site as a plug-and-go package. The air conditioned cabin has an air seal, minimising the ingress of dust, to protect against damage to the control equipment. The cabin, which is located near the roof
of the store also improves safety as technicians are no longer required to operate the system from the crane bridge. Variable speed drives were also
fitted to the Demag crane for smoother travel, reducing bucket sway and minimising the possibility of collision damage to the store’s walls. The variable speed drives also provide greater positioning accuracy when depositing raw material in the store bays. The crane system’s cross and
long travel speeds were increased to improve productivity and accommodate the additional volumes of gypsum and limestone delivered to the plant. Terex also replaced and updated cross and long travel festooned cables, as part of the upgrade. CEMEX’s Project Team Electrical
Co-ordinator, Robin Page, reported that the Demag Service team had delivered a well engineered solution to meet the specific requirements of the refurbishment, improving performance to meet sustained growth. “The automation and upgrade of
the Demag crane system has enhanced our efficiency and production capacity, speeding up the handling of gypsum and limestone. Previously, we often incurred waiting time charges from hauliers, when the material handling system couldn’t keep pace with deliveries, but these have now been eliminated.”
RELATIONSHIP WITH CEMEX • Fully automated crane system boosts productivity
ABOUT TEREX MATERIAL HANDLING Terex MHPS GmbH is one of the world’s
leading suppliers of crane technology with Demag industrial cranes and crane components. The core competence of the Terex Material Handling business group lies in the development, design and production of technically sophisticated cranes, hoists and components and the provision of sales support
18 Bulk Solids Today
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