LSF drift
Off-target lime saturation swings free lime and burnability downstream.
Agent A1 · Raw & feed
A stable kiln starts in the quarry.
The raw & feed agent controls quarry blending and raw-meal proportioning, holding LSF, silica ratio, and alumina ratio on target and the raw mill at the right fineness, so the kiln sees a feed it can burn consistently.
±1.0LSF
Raw-meal target band
−45%
LSF standard deviation
12.4%
90µm residue held
4
Blend feeders coordinated
Variable feed makes the kiln impossible to hold.
If LSF and the moduli wander, the burning zone chases a moving target all shift. Quarry variability, pile segregation, and manual feeder tuning all conspire against a steady meal.
Face variability
Every quarry face has a different chemistry the blend must absorb.
Coarse meal
High residue makes clinker harder to burn and raises energy.
Feeder guesswork
Hand-tuned feeder ratios lag the incoming material.
Perception
It reads the meal chemistry live.
Using online analyzers and mill data, the agent estimates raw-meal LSF, silica and alumina ratios, and fineness continuously, and forecasts how the current pile will burn.
- Online chemistry estimate of LSF, SR, and AR.
- Burnability index forecasts how the meal will fire.
- Fineness tracking from mill load and residue.
Raw-meal LSF98.2
Silica ratio2.48
Alumina ratio1.61
90µm residue12.4 %
Burnabilityeasy
Control
It proportions blend and mill together.
The agent moves quarry blend ratios and raw-mill setpoints to hold target chemistry and fineness at minimum specific power, feeding the kiln a meal it can burn hour after hour.
- Blend optimizer across feeders and pre-blend piles.
- Raw-mill control for fineness at minimum kWh/t.
- Feed-forward to the kiln agent on incoming chemistry.
Feeder A / B38 / 27 %
Corrective (Fe)3.1 %
Mill setpoint312 t/h
Spec. power16.8 kWh/t
Feed-forwardsent
From quarry face to kiln feed.
Estimate chemistry
Read LSF, SR, AR, and fineness from analyzers and mill data.
Optimize the blend
Proportion feeders and correctives to hit target chemistry.
Control the mill
Hold fineness at minimum specific power.
Feed forward
Tell the kiln agent what is coming so it can pre-adjust.
What the raw agent governs
Targets
LSF, silica ratio, alumina ratio, 90µm / 200µm residue.
Actuators
Quarry blend ratios, corrective feeders, raw-mill setpoints.
Analyzers
Cross-belt / online XRF, and pile pre-blend models.
Objective
On-target chemistry and fineness at minimum kWh/t.
Coupling
Feed-forward of incoming chemistry to the kiln agent.
Integration
OPC UA / Modbus to blending and mill control systems.
What a steady meal moves
Legacy control vs. Clinkum autonomy
Manual & rule-based
- Hand-tuned feeder ratios
- Chemistry known from lab, late
- Mill run on fixed setpoints
- Kiln absorbs all the variability
- No coupling to the burn
Clinkum
- Optimized blend across feeders
- Live chemistry estimate
- Mill at minimum specific power
- Feed pre-stabilized for the kiln
- Feed-forward to the burning zone
“Half our kiln instability was really feed instability. Steady the meal and the burning zone almost holds itself.”
Process Engineer · Integrated plant, single 5,000 tpd line
Common questions
A cross-belt or online XRF analyzer helps a lot, but the agent also works with lab chemistry plus pile pre-blend models, improving as instrumentation improves.
Yes. It models each face and pre-blend pile and proportions feeders to absorb the variability before it reaches the kiln.
It can hold fineness at minimum specific power, or feed setpoints to your existing mill control if you prefer.
By feeding forward incoming chemistry so the kiln agent pre-adjusts fuel and feed before the material arrives at the burning zone.
Adjacent agents
Run this agent on your line.
Start a paid pilot on one kiln or mill, with a defined success metric on your data, under your security controls.