Efficiency, economy and productivity are the key points of Ocrim R&D department’s studies. Ocrim introduces the “Modular Technology Concept”, a tangible example of Industry 4.0 intended for milling. An innovative technology that allows to recover at least 50% of the production during planned and/or unexpected downtime in the grinding section.
Considerably Costs Reducing Of Downtime: Now You Can
Those who experience working in a mill every day know this: the routine maintenance in a milling plant and the reducing of production costs are very important issues and closely linked to each other. If you consider, for example, the cost of a downtime period – in a 1200 t/24h mill – for lack of production during scheduled maintenance in the sifters, but also for changing the grinding rolls, it’s easy to understand the impact that this can have on the plant’s annual financial statements. Ocrim has solved this kind of problem while at the same time ensuring compliance with maintenance requirements according to the planned intervals. The solution is called “Modular Technology Concept”, an advanced technological innovation that allows you to stop only some parts of the grinding section, leaving others running, thus steadily ensuring a part of production. With this system we obtain the double benefit of reducing operating costs during maintenance and guaranteeing productivity. What’s more, the “Modular Technology Concept” allows the operator to manage, through the various automation logics, any alarms and consequent downtime periods. A considerable advantage compared to what happens today without the modular concept. It is important to point out that the “Modular Technology Concept” does not provide for the separated of the grinding line, since there is no mention of two totally independent grinding sections, but of an only grinding section with the possibility to stop some parts of it without compromising the functionality of the remaining subgroups.
An Important Saving
We have said that minimum production is always guaranteed. But in what percentage? The “Modular Technology Concept” allows to recover at least 50% of production during the planned and/or unexpected downtime in the grinding section. Also, by applying this technology, maintenance intervals and methods can be observed without sacrificing it. We all agree that a properly serviced plant is more efficient and productive. This technology, inside the milling plant, is articulated through four fundamental elements: diagram, layout, automation and equipment. In principle, this technology can also be applied to pre-existing plants, and thus be used to retrofit them. Clearly, a careful analysis is needed to get an insight into the condition of pre-existing machinery and the level of automation applied along with a thorough evaluation of the plant engineering in order to see if and which points will need to be modified so as to be adapted. Today there are several plants that already use this new Ocrim technology and we can say that, based on objective results, the total downtime due to planned and/or unexpected maintenance, as well as occasional idle periods in the grinding section, has been reduced by 30% to 50%. In view of these results, applying the modular concept technology to plants with a capacity exceeding 600 TPD has become a well-established practice for Ocrim.
