Cement Plant Tour

Kiln at Cement Plant

We got to tour a cement plant today with the Boy Scouts - Excellent!  One of the dads works at the plant and gave us all a very good tour with Control Room, Plant, Quarry, and even snacks and gift bags.

We first went in for a Safety Discussion.  They showed slides and asked the kids to identify what was wrong.

We then got all of our safety equipment on (PPE to those of you in the US) and headed outside to see the big equipment.  The kids all held onto a knotted rope to keep them together during the tour.

Conveyors from Quarry on the right

After the limestone is blasted, it rides conveyors down to the plant.  Two kinds of cement are produced here - white and grey (regular).  The white is special and used in architectural applications.  They then melt it in 1400 C, slightly inclined, rotating, brick-lined kilns (shown in the top picture).  At the end of the kiln, there are tubes with special designs that break up the flow and make the klinkers (like little marble type chunks).

We also got to see mills, preheaters, filter bag houses, etc.  The control is all done via PLC (Siemens & Allen Bradley) - yes, I am a nerd and asked.  I wanted to ask a lot more questions, but since it was a tour for the kids, I restrained myself.

Next we rode up the elevator to the platform to see the view of the town & the plant.  We were 120 meters high.

After a pit-stop for the kids, we boarded a bus (not a plant bus either - a really nice rented tour bus) and made our way out to see the quarry.

After driving around to see the quarry levels, we stopped and all walked up to the area near where the trucks dump their loads so that the rocks can make it down the conveyors to the plant.  Here, the kids were treated to an extra special surprise...

They each got a ride in the 60 ton dump trucks!  With three kids per truck, they got to drive down into the quarry, get loaded, drive back and dump the load.  

Very Cool!!!  

(One other note - this picture was taken at just after 4:30 pm.
It is getting dark earlier here too.)

We then went back to turn in our Safety Equipment and were all given gift bags with shirts, hats, pens, stickers, balloons, etc.  This was such a good tour.  And, all of the walls had pictures of their work with children, their town days, and community service.  

One other thing I noticed was that there were actually working restrooms for the women that were the same size as the ones for the men!  (Just one thing a lot of old plants tend to not have.  I know.)
One thing Brian noticed was that farther away at the quarry, the walls of the shop were plastered with large girly photos.  (Just one thing a lot of old plants tend to have.  And Brian tends to notice.)

I'm hoping that while we're here, Brian's plant will get to give a tour to the group.  We'll just have to wait and see what the rules are.