Displaying items by tag: automation

Brazil: Germany-based INFORM has established a joint venture with its partner Portia LAC in São Paulo. The new company called INFORM PORTIA will take over sales, consulting and support for INFORM software products in Brazil.

Andreas Meyer, the chief executive officer of INFORM, said “With this joint venture, we are expanding our presence in South America to meet the growing demand for software solutions to optimise business processes.” He added, “This joint venture is an important building block in our global network. We strive to maintain a relationship with our customers based on partnership and trust. However, this is much more successful if you also have a local presence.” In addition to its headquarters in Aachen in Germany and new joint venture in Brazil, INFORM is represented by five other INFORM related companies in the US, Chile, Australia, Singapore, and Portugal respectively.

US: Titan America has successfully implemented machine learning monitoring and adjustment software systems at its cement plants at Pennsuco in Florida and Roanoke in Virginia. The producer says that the increased automation will enhance the plants' efficiency, reliability and product quality.

President and chief executive officer Bill Zarkalis said "I'm incredibly proud to mark the end-to-end digital transformation of our cement plants. A systematic process of test and learn that started several years ago has reached an important milestone.”

Finland: Advancetec has changed its name to Schmersal Finland. The company was originally founded in 1993 in Helsinki as a sales company for automation technology. Germany-based Schmersal Group entered into a sales cooperation with Advancetec in the 1990s and eventually fully acquired the company in 2019.

Schmersal Finland sells products from the Schmersal portfolio and the safety services of Schmersal’s services division under the brand name tec.nicum, primarily in Finland and Estonia. Customers include well-known companies from the sectors paper manufacturing, food processing, robotics, marine industry and heavy industry.

Jukka Harmoinen, the managing director of Schmersal Finland, said “The new name will make it easier for us to increase the visibility of the Schmersal brand in Finland. In the future we would like to expand our product range and to develop new projects in cooperation with engineering and consulting companies.”

Germany: Loesche has published its Sustainability Report of its performance in 2021. The supplier’s Scope 1 and 2 CO₂ emissions declined by 6.1% year-on-year to 229t from 244t in 2020 and by 19% over the two years from 2019, when they totalled 282t. It reduced the share of Scope 2 emissions in the figure to 40% from 41% in 2020 and 45% in 2019.

Loesche offers emissions-reducing products to the global cement industry under the label Greenkey Solutions. These include its A/Fuel and H/combust ranges for alternative fuels and green hydrogen upgrades, its C/Clay range for clay calcining and grinding, its Digital/Ready 4.0! range for predictive process optimisation and smart asset management, its E/Slag range for ground granulated blast furnace slag upgrades and its S/Crete range for waste concrete recycling, as well as audits for retrofits. Together, Loesche says that its products can reduce the global cement sector’s carbon footprint by 90%. Within this, Loesche believes that calcined clay technology alone can reduce cement’s CO₂ emissions by 40% and its energy demand by 21%.

Loesche said that its launch during the year of its H₂Optimum grinding bed spraying system can reduce grinding mills’ water consumption by 50%.

Egypt: Misr Cement Qena commenced automated cement production at its Qena cement plant in early July 2022. The automation systems also cover plant maintenance processes. Misr Cement Qena awarded a technical management contract for the plant to Arab Swiss Engineering Company in June 2021.

Misr Cement Qena said "This step came in line with the company’s growth strategy to reduce operating costs and maximise asset utilisation in order to meet current challenges."

Morocco: Holcim subsidiary LafargeHolcim Maroc has released information about its 1.6Mt/yr Agadir cement plant in Souss-Massa Region. The producer invested US$299m in the plant’s construction and it has been operational since late 2021. The plant is highly automated in line with Holcim’s Plants of Tomorrow strategy. It will run off wind power from 2023, and also uses alternative fuel (AF). 200 people work at the plant.

In conjunction with its work in setting up the new cement plant, LafargeHolcim Maroc developed drinking water networks in the surrounding area, including the construction of three solar-powered water towers.

India: Bharathi Cement plans to build a US$17m automated terminal and packaging plant at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. United News of India has reported that the facility will package the company’s bagged and bulk cement and supply the South West Tamil Nadu and Kerala markets.

On 23 April 2022, the subsidiary of France-based Vicat despatched its first rake of cement aboard custom-built tank and box container cars to Coimbatore from its Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, cement plant. Vicat’s India CEO Anoop Kumar Saxena said that the first-of-its method of bulk cement transportation will reduce the company’s logistics costs and carbon emission and increase the service level for customers.

Greece: Titan Cement Group has secured an EU patent for its robotic remote preheater system, previously installed at the company’s Kamari cement plant in Viotia. Titan Cement Group designed the system to maximise operational efficiency and safety.

The company carried out a Euro25m precalciner installation at the Kamari plant in 2021 – 2022.

China: Fujian Jianfu Cement has hired Citic Heavy Industries to carry out engineering design, procurement, construction and delivery of its upcoming 4500t/day ‘green smart’ cement plant. Process Worldwide Online News has reported that the plant will cost US$136m and operate with a high degree of process automation. As such, Citic Heavy Industries will rely on 3D parametric equipment design and digital twin technology in order to generate equipment models, incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and maximise data potential for lifecycle operations.

India: Shree Cement has hired Denmark-based FLSmidth to carry out its digital transformation. The supplier will install its ECS/PlantDataManagement monitoring system at Shree Cement’s cement plants. It says that the technology will increase efficiency.

Shree Cement’s joint managing director Prashant Bangur said "We are always looking at ways to optimise production, and the decision to apply FLSmidth's information management system to all our sites is a natural next step." Whole-time managing director Prakash Narayan Chhangani said "FLSmidth is a trusted partner for us, as we demonstrated by the milling and pyro order we announced last year. And we are confident that this next step in our digital transformation will prove to be profitable."