Revamping a Fan in Mexico: Performance Up, Costs Down

Products: Fans, Services & Retrofits
Industry: Cement & Lime
Location: Tepetzingo, Mexico

In 2016, Boldrocchi was awarded a contract to revamp a kiln fan at Cementos Moctezuma’s Tepetzingo plant. Plant officials were looking for a major performance increase but had a limited budget. Our kiln fan revamp increased the fan’s performance by 40% while saving 30% in costs. To further reduce costs, we designed a partial casing replacement to allow the client to keep most of the existing casing.

Boldrocchi’s engineering team analyzed the options at the Tepetzingo plant and concluded that maintaining the existing fan would be possible, saving significant amounts of money. However, in order to achieve the performance increase requested, the rotor would have to be completely changed, in turn requiring the replacement of the bearings and prime movers as well. Modifying the casing was also necessary. They also designed a partial casing replacement to allow the client to keep the existing casing, while allowing the added space required for the new, larger impeller.

We managed to increase the fan’s performance by 40% while saving 30% in costs by maintaining the existing kiln fan.

Scope of supply:

Rotor
Bearings
Prime movers
Partial casing

Existing Fan Data:

No. of Unit: 1
Fan Type: HF 4S TD 315 3TD8A
Arrangement: 17 (Double Inlet with boxes – Impeller between bearings)
Speed: 890 RPM
Drive: Electric Motor
Drive Rating: 1.400 kW
Control type: Variable Speed

Performance Objectives	Fan design point before revamping:	Future operation point after revamping:
Capacity	475,000 m³/h or 279.412 cfm	660,000 m³/h or 388.235 cfm
Static pressure	67 mbar or 26,4” wg	83 mbar or 32,67” wg
Specific weight	0,507 kg/m³ or 0,0317 PCF	0,475 kg/m³or 0,0297 PCF
Velocity	890 RPM	940 RPM
Temperature	430 °C (806 °F)	380 °C (716 °F)
Absorbed power	1121 kW or 1505 bhp	1980 kW or 2655 bhp
Dust	30 g/m³ or 0,0019 PCF	30 g/m³ or 0,0019 PCF