Polytrack©: "looking into the future, today"

This paper introduces the general principles behind the development of a new cooler; highlight the technical solutions and then follow with a brief look on the benefits that can be achieved with this new design. The major disadvantage of the old generation of coolers is its deteriorating efficiency over time: Increasing wear on the grate plates causes a deterioration of cooler efficiency caused by uneven air distribution. In addition to maintaining the proper operation and efficiency of conventional coolers, a considerable amount of maintenance is required, thus increasing operational costs and lowering availability. These are the reasons that the goal of improving modern clinker cooler design has shifted: It is no longer mainly focused at improving the thermal efficiency by increasing the temperature of the recuperated air. Therefore, it was the aim for the development of the new cooler to create a constant cooling efficiency over time. In addition, the maintenance requirements and costs had to be considerably lower than for conventional coolers, thus lowering the operational costs of the kiln line.