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Kentwood Brick and Tile Mfg. Co.
72199 Highway 51
P.O. Drawer F
Kentwood, LA 70444
Kentwood Brick has been one of the more interesting experiences for us in the Ceramic world, as the owner, Mr. Don Clemons, has asked for the equipment required to make meaningful improvements in firing efficiency. This Kiln was already equipped with Pulse Firing by Hauck. Providing Kentwood Brick with the tools to visualize what was actually going on in their Kiln proved to be the real key to actually obtaining the efficiency that we knew this Kiln could produce. The first phase involved replacing the existing Pressure Sensors with ones that were capable of accurately and reliably measuring the critical pressures that control Kiln Draft, Cooling Air Supply, and Dryer Supply. This is no place for cheap Sensors! The existing Standalone Controllers were reconfigured to properly utilize these Sensors and provide accurate control. So many conflicting problems existed that this only provided more accurate information about what was really going on. The next phase involved adding several critical pieces of Hardware - Mass Flow Sensors for measuring the flows involved with the Waste Heat System. This was critical because the Kiln was in an essentially open-air environment, therefore the ambient air that is used to cool the Load changes in Density with the outside air Temperature and Humidity. This made pressure based control of the Kiln Cold Air Supply unreliable. An HMI was configured and installed, in order that Historical Trending could be accomplished to provide the visualization tools necessary to show the Operators how all of the variables interacted with each other and what proper tuning looked like. This also provided us the ability to connect remotely with their Controls, and provide assistance in Tuning and operation from our World HQ, as well as additional development of the HMI system. The results speak for themselves - check out the Fuel Trends below - in particular pay attention to the Dates. Over the course of a few months, 25% was removed from the Fuel Budget and product quality and consistency were improved immensely. We are still working through Operations issues with the Client, as exemplified in the second Chart - which shows the enormous changes that the Operators feel they need to make when a Zone is just a few degrees away from SetPoint. This will come in time as they become comfortable with the fact that now the Controls actually work, instead of merely indicating the Temperature.
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