Pavilion Technologies announced that Ash Grove Cement Co. will deploy Pavilion’s cement control solution on a single dry kiln at its Durkee, OR. This award marks Pavilion’s 43rd control project in the cement, metals and minerals industry, the company says. Currently, Ash Grove Cement operates nine plants in the U.S. and produces more than 7.8 million tons of cement annually.
“We were looking to upgrade our existing high level control system at Durkee and turned to Pavilion to be our control solution provider because of their reputation in the industry for consistently delivering results that support cement manufacturers’ business operating objectives, while providing a low cost of ownership,” says Mike Hrizuk, Ash Grove’s Western Division vice president of manufacturing.
Cement companies are challenged to meet market demand, reduce operating costs, increase use of alternative fuels and maintain environmental compliance. Pavilion’s cement solution reportedly provides process control and optimization across all key areas of the manufacturing process, enabling companies to stabilize production and enhance quality while minimizing the effects of process upsets to maximize efficiency.
Pavilion’s cement solution addresses the most difficult challenges facing cement manufacturers including increased customer demands, high energy costs, strict environmental limits and use of secondary fuels. The technology is said to optimize production processes, including the vertical raw mill, kiln, and cement mill. In addition, Pavilion provides environmental compliance monitoring and reporting and production performance management. These applications are said to leverage the company’s domain expertise and Pavilion8 software platform for modeling, control, monitoring, analysis, visualization, and integration. As a result, Pavilion says, customers achieve faster time-to-value and greater long-term value than alternatives.
—Richard Phelps, senior editor, Control Engineering
