Successful retrofit upgrade of a Kiln Drive application at Lehigh Cement, York, Pa by replacing existing electromechanical (D.C.) Drive with Direct Hydraulic Drive system

This paper describes the retrofit of a Cement Kiln Drive with a Direct Hydraulic Drive (DHD) replacing an existing DC drive with gearbox. DHD uses Low Speed High Torque Hydraulic motor without any intermediate gearing. This paper explains various issues plant maintenance had to go through, troubles during kiln start up, and maintenance of the kiln drive. The plant also needed to vary the range of kiln speed for various material and product change as well as capacity changes. This paper describes the step by step case study of this retrofit project and conversion from electro mechanical drive to DHD. It explains the features and benefits of this retrofit justification. This retrofit also improves the health monitoring of the drive by logging the critical parameters electronically to see the trending of the kiln drive. It provides useful information about the actual capacity in relation to the design of the drive and expected life prediction for future expansion capacity evaluation. This paper provides an overview of useful hints for maintenance practices and guide lines for preventative maintenance practices for engineers, production, and maintenance personnel.