Stages of cement manufacturing
Cement Industry
Cement is an artificial material consisting of raw materials. These materials are transformed under the influence of heat into a new artificial material. Cement is a soft material that has cohesive and adhesive properties in the presence of water, which makes it able to bind concrete components to each other.
Basic components of cement
Limestone
approximate ratio
%
79
Clay
approximate ratio
%
19
50
Iron (Corrective materials)
approximate ratio
%
1
50
These percentages are approximate and depend on the chemical composition of the raw materials
Basic stages of cement manufacturing
Quarries
Raw material extraction
It is the source of the raw materials necessary for the operation of cement factories and the basis of their establishment. The raw materials necessary for the cement industry are extracted from it using several methods, either by blasting or by shoveling and scraping.
Crushers
Crushing of raw materials
The crusher is fed with raw materials such as limestone, clay, and clay lime, distributed according to the specified mixing ratios, and these materials are crushed by it so that they come out in sizes suitable for grinding, the most important of which is the crusher with hammers, jaws, and rollers.
Raw material grinder
Grinding raw materials
After the crushing stage, the raw materials are ground to reach the required fineness in order to be transported to the homogenization silos and ready for the burning process.
Rotary kiln
Burning raw materials
In this stage, the soft raw materials are burned to turn into a new material known as clinker through many chemical reactions that take place inside the rotary kiln and under conditions of high pressure and temperature.
Cement mill
Grinding clinker
with the addition of gypsum
At this stage, the clinker is ground in special mills with a limited percentage of gypsum (hydrated calcium sulphate), about 3.00 to 5.00%, added according to the degree of purity of the gypsum. It is added for the purpose of obtaining the strength or hardness of the concrete and also prevents the hardening of the cement during the preparation and mixing of the concrete.
Packing
The last stage of cement manufacturing, where the cement is pushed from the silos and packed into special bags with a capacity of each bag of 50 kilograms through rotary packing machines, and the cement is filled in bulk in tanks on the back of trucks whose load ranges from approximately 30 to 70 tons.
