OREANDA-NEWS. EUROCEMENT Group upgrades its enterprises on an ongoing basis with a view to raising its product quality, reducing energy costs and improving environmental conditions. In 2013, the Holding Company invested more than RUR 120 million in the upgrading and re-equipment of Oskolcement.

Critical projects include the installation of a new line for the shrink wrap packaging of 50 kg paper bags containing finished products A line made by Beumer, Germany, was assembled and put into operation in the cement dispatching and packaging department to replace the previous worn out line. The packaging line is characterized by high control automation level, as well as automated fault detection.

The packaging line is a single unit, including a rotating machine from Haver & Boecker designed for packing cement into 50 kg bags in an automatic mode. This part of the process line underwent drastic upgrade entailing complete replacement of the weighing control system, the installation of advanced belt scale, the launch of automatic bag coupling system. The set of implemented activities allowed increasing the scope of cement shrink wrap packaging.

In support of the new high-performance Beumer line operation, a new forklift loader from Toyota, which costs RUR 1.9 million, was delivered to the dispatching and packaging shop.

It should be noted that in 2013 Oskolcement launched the production of a new cement type CEM I 42,5 B. Consequently, the enterprise broadened the range of manufactured products to 5 types. The new cement type, conforming to the requirements set forth in GOST 31108-2003 and GOST 30515-97 regulatory documents, is certified by BelGTASM-SERTIFIKATSIYA, a body in charge of product certification in construction, Belgorod. The cement is intended for residential, infrastructural and industrial construction and is dispatched both in bulk and packed into 50 kg three-layer paper bags and 1,000 kg big bags.

In 2013, during the final phase of implementation of the automated industrial process control systems at Oskolcement, 4 cement mill (Nos. 9-12) systems were installed. The project implementation allowed reducing specific power consumption by 3%; optimizing the grinding unit control process; maintaining sustainably the preset ratio of components in the grinded charge, which is an additional instrument to control the quality of manufactured cement. Information concerning the operation of all grinding equipment is displayed on an ongoing basis on screens of the new purpose-built control panel.

The enterprise pit, in which raw materials for cement production are extracted, received a new track-type Caterpillar bulldozer, which costs RUR 18.3 million, which, owing to its cross-country capability and high-technology equipment, eases greatly the installation of bottom holes and motor roads in the pit and is able to operate under adverse weather conditions.

For the performance of repair work, a new KAMAZ all-terrain truck with a cable-operated loader crane from Hiab and a tonnage of 6.5 tons was purchased for RUR 3.83 million. The crane purchase allowed raising considerably the speed of repair work at the pit excavators and the enterprise's primary technology equipment (rotating furnaces, Hydrofall mills, cement and raw mills).

In 2013, for the purpose of improving the efficiency of refractory work at rotating clinker burning kilns, new machinery and special tools were purchased, namely: portable compressor from Atlas Copco, Sweden; concrete mixer for making heat-resistant concrete mixtures, the kiln shell laser marking system. All of this allows reducing significantly the duration of work, improving its quality and longevity.