A cement plant's profitability turns on its annual rotary-kiln shutdown. Once the burner is off and the kiln cools, refractory tear-out, shell ultrasonic testing, tyre and trunnion roller NDE, and rebricking must run on a tight critical path while MSHA 30 CFR structural and safety inspections proceed across the preheater tower and clinker cooler.
Current state before intelliSPEC
- Refractory and shell data in separate spreadsheets: Brick thickness logs, thermal-scanner hot-spot history, and ultrasonic shell thickness readings were kept in separate files by meter mark, making it hard to predict which shell rings needed plate replacement before tear-out.
- Unconnected trunnion and gear NDE: Magnetic-particle and ultrasonic flaw inspections on kiln tyres, rollers, and girth gears arrived as third-party PDFs weeks after the kiln restarted.
- Outage scope drift: Emergent shell cracks or warped nose-ring castings discovered after brick removal caused uncoordinated schedule slips.
Configured path
The plant deployed intelliVISION, intelliEDGE, intelliINSPECT, intelliNDT, intelliINTEGRITY, and intelliPROJECTS.
- Meter-by-meter kiln register: The rotary kiln was modeled in
by meter station, shell course, tyre pad, preheater stage, and cyclone vessel. - Offline capture inside the kiln and tower: Crews working inside the bricked kiln shell and up the preheater tower logged UT shell thickness, refractory wear, and MSHA structural findings offline in
. - Live rebricking and repair gates:
tracked tear-out, shell weld repairs, NDE sign-offs, and bricking progress shift by shift, holding the heat-up gate until every mechanical and refractory check was closed.
Measured outcome
- Predictable shell-ring renewals: Multi-year shell thinning and thermal history per meter mark identify shell sections for replacement months before the kiln stop.
- Controlled heat-up gate: Plant management verifies every tyre NDE call, shell repair weld, and bricking quality check on one screen before light-off.
- Complete MSHA inspection trail: Guarding, structural steel, and pressure-vessel records across the quarry and finish mill export on demand.