SPECTRAFLOW ANALYTICS RECEIVES A SECOND ORDER FOR AN AIRSLIDE ANALYZER FOR RAW MATERIAL GRINDING OPTIMIZATION FROM LAFARGEHOLCIM MAYA, EL SALVADOR

Holcim El Salvador part of the globally acting LafargeHolcim Cement Group ordered a SpectraFlow Airslide Analyzer for optimizing the Raw Material Grinding for their Maya plant. This order is the second within the Holcim El Salvador after the airslide analyzer at the El Ronco plant in 2019. This is inline with the 2019 started initiative “Plants of Tomorrow”, which should improve the efficiency of plants by 15% to 20% by using the latest technologies.

About LafargeHolcim El Salvador:
In 1949 Cemento de El Salvador (CESSA) was founded in Acajutla, on the western coast of El Salvador. In 1953 the production with one rotary kiln was started. In 1956 the second kiln started production in Acajutla. In 1965 the El Ronco plant started production in Metapan. In 1967 kiln 3 started operation, while in 1979 the plant was expanded with kiln 4 and in 1997 with kiln 5. In 1998 CESSA went into a strategic alliance with Holderbank Cement (today Holcim). In 2005 Holcim had 50% of the CESSA shares and the company employed more than 500 people in El Salvador. In 2009 Holcim increased its participation to 90% and in 2010 the brand name “Holcim” was used throughout Cemento de El Salvador. Since 2015 Holcim El Salvador is part of the LafargeHolcim merger. Today LafargeHolcim El Salvador operates 2 cement plants (El Ronco, Maya), 3 concrete plants, 1 recycling plant with a waste incinerator and 1 paper mill for producing cement bags in the country.

Today LafargeHolcim operates about 270 integrated cement plants and grinding stations across more than 50 countries in the world and is therefore the largest cement producer. Beside cement LafargeHolcim is also active in Aggregates, Ready-Mix Concrete and Solutions & Products.

SpectraFlow Installation for Raw Material Grinding Optimization:
General:
The SpectraFlow Airslide Analyzer is the online analyzer to be able to measure raw materials in airslides. As raw materials in airslides are very homogeneous and dry the analytical results of the SpectraFlow Airslide Analyzer are very accurate and based on these accurate results the RMP control software can optimize the weight feeders before the raw mill in real time every minute. This results in very low LSF STDEV without the need of extensive sampling and laboratory efforts.

By using SpectraFlow an increase in the raw meal quality will be achieved.
Summarized benefits are:

No need of intensive sampling. No automated sample transport system, no automated laboratory required.
High cost reduction due to reduced laboratory usage (CAPEX, OPEX, man power,…)

The analyzer together with the RMP Raw Mix Proportioning control software is fully automating the raw material grinding. The analyzer delivers the analytical results and according the setpoint the software is adjusting the weight feeders of the additive bins.

Adjustment of the weight feeders in real time every minute. No time delay due to sampling, sample preparation,…

Introducing redundancy for the raw mill control. SpectraFlow is delivering the chemical results for the weight feeder control normally, while as a back-up, the laboratory can be used in the rare case, that the SpectraFlow Analyzer is not available.

Lower LSF STDEV/better and more consistent raw meal quality
This SpectraFlow order is the 45th order for the Cement Industry and the 7th installation in the Americas. This order raises the installed based in El Salvador to 2 analyzers (2 Airslide) and worldwide to 66 analyzers (38 Crossbelt & 28 Airslide).

SpectraFlow Analytics Ltd. Switzerland are the experts in providing online analysis for the cement and minerals industry without any radioactive sources nor neutron generators. The NIR technology used for the SpectraFlow Analyzers is not requiring any permits or licenses and there are no restrictions in buying, importing or maintaining the analyzers. This results in very low operating costs and high availability of the analyzers combined with highly accurate measurement results.