Cement is the basic ingredient of construction and the most widely used construction material. It is a very critical ingredient, because only cement has the ability of enhancing viscosity of concrete which in returns provides the better locking of sand and gravels together in a concrete mix.
Cement Manufacturing Process
This first step in cement manufactures is to combine a variety of raw ingredients. these ingredients are ground into small particles to make them more reactive, blended together. After transport, the coarse-grained rock is crushed in crushing plants to crushed stone of about 30 millimeters edge length.
The materials are conveyed to the grinding mill and are ground to a suitable fineness, called raw meal at this stage. This is then stored in a blending silo and blended to ensure homogeneity. The proportions of the 3 components are controlled by the continuous sampling and testing of this raw meal.
Pre- heater is made of containers in the form of incomplete invers cones that installed on the top of kiln entry. the material goes into it before kiln entry. hot air on the top of kiln makes the material warm up. This process leads to humidity absorption and having dry material.
Kiln inlet is located a little upper in comparison to its outlet. kiln has circular rotation during material cooking. After cooking, material changes to melt and flowing down to outlet while has 1200-1300 C. this material called Clinker.
The purpose of a cooler is, obviously, to cool the clinker in order to prevent damage to clinker handling equipment and forming of Clinker crystal and improve its quality. A little gypsum adds to Clinker and the cement finds out white color.
Finally, the cement is stored in silos before being shipped in bulk or in bags to the sites where it will be used.
