Hot-zone sampling
Manual sampling near the kiln and cooler is a real hazard.
Agent A6 · Robot & inspection
Eyes and hands on the hot line.
The robot & inspection agent drives robotic sampling, drone and crawler kiln-shell and refractory inspection, and packing and palletizing, taking people out of the hottest, most hazardous, most repetitive work.
0
Manual hot-zone samples
0.4mm
Shell scan resolution
24/7
Continuous inspection
−60%
Inspection downtime
The hottest work is still done by hand.
People pull clinker samples next to a 1,450 °C kiln, inspect refractory in shutdowns, and stack bags for a full shift. It is hot, hazardous, slow, and inconsistent.
Blind between stops
Refractory wear is only seen in shutdowns, often too late.
Repetitive packing
Bag stacking and palletizing is heavy, repetitive, injury-prone work.
Human variance
Sample timing and inspection quality vary shift to shift.
Perception
It inspects continuously, not in shutdowns.
Drones and shell crawlers scan the kiln continuously, mapping shell temperature, coating, and refractory wear, and flag hot-spots and ring growth long before they force a stop.
- Shell & refractory mapping from drone and crawler scans.
- Hot-spot & ring detection with growth tracking.
- Vision QC on clinker, bags, and pallets.
Shell max temp312 °C
Refractory left62 %
Hot-spots0
Ring growthslow
Next scanauto
Control
It samples and handles automatically.
Robotic samplers pull and deliver clinker and cement to the lab on schedule, and palletizing robots pack and stack finished product, consistent, logged, and hands-free.
- Robotic sampling on a fixed schedule to the lab.
- Palletizing robots for bagged product.
- Inspection dispatch triggered by process events.
Samples / hour12
Pallets / hour90
Sample latency−40 %
Manual entries0
Handling injuries↓
Perceive, sample, handle.
Scan the kiln
Drones and crawlers map shell, coating, and refractory continuously.
Flag & track
Detect hot-spots and ring growth and track them over time.
Sample on schedule
Robotic samplers deliver clinker and cement to the lab hands-free.
Pack & palletize
Robots pack and stack finished product consistently.
What the robotics agent governs
Inspection
Kiln-shell temperature, coating, refractory wear, hot-spots.
Sampling
Robotic clinker and cement sampling to the lab.
Handling
Bag packing and palletizing robots.
Platforms
Drones, shell crawlers, fixed and mobile manipulators.
Vision
Clinker, bag, and pallet quality inspection.
Integration
Feeds the kiln and quality agents; logs to the historian.
What robotics moves
Legacy control vs. Clinkum autonomy
Manual & rule-based
- People sample next to the kiln
- Refractory seen only in shutdowns
- Bag stacking by hand
- Inspection quality varies
- Wear found too late
Clinkum
- Robotic sampling, hands-free
- Continuous refractory mapping
- Palletizing robots
- Consistent, logged inspection
- Wear tracked and pre-empted
“Getting people away from the hot zone was the easy sell. The continuous refractory map saved us an unplanned outage in the first quarter.”
Maintenance Lead · Integrated plant, single line
Common questions
No. We integrate with drones, crawlers, samplers, and palletizers you already have or procure separately, and provide the autonomy and vision layer.
Drones and crawlers scan while the kiln runs, so refractory and coating are mapped continuously rather than only during shutdowns.
Yes, shell and coating data feeds the kiln agent, and robotic samples feed the quality agent and lab.
Platforms operate within defined safety envelopes and are designed specifically for the hot, dusty kiln environment.
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.