Siam Cement Group (SCG), Thailand’s largest cement company that is more than 70 years old wanted to upgrade its plant in Thailand’s Tha Luang in Saraburi Province. The company wanted to increase their kiln capacity and modernize its ABB drives system by converting from direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) to enable better control and less maintenance of its plant.
To optimize operating conditions, ABB installed ACS880 series drives along with ABB motors. The drives included the new ABB AbilityTM mobile application, ABB Drivetune. The ACS880 drive has a Bluetooth panel that enables easy connection to mobile devices so that users can control and monitor through their smartphone. This enables customers to have a simple, easy-to-use approach for monitoring historical trends, control speed and start-stop operation and access drive information to support commissioning, servicing and reporting.
The kiln is the heart of the cement making process and is connected to the plant‘s stability. The new drives ensure that the kiln reaches its optimal capacity, while keeping fuel consumption in check, maintaining low running costs and meeting environmental standards. The drives enable full control over varying demands such as changing production volumes. The production has increased from 4,000 tons to 4,300 tons per day.
“With its high efficiency and reliability, ABB drives and motors combined with our Ability™ digital offering will meet the customer's requirements of high sustaining capacity and high operating accuracy. It’s a new level of functionality, service and convenience,” said Songyos Panpradit, Project Sales Manager of ABB’s motors and drives business in Thailand.
The construction and infrastructure sectors, including the cement industry, are important to Thailand‘s industrial development. Siam Cement Group, established in 1913, is now a leading business conglomerate in the ASEAN region with three core businesses, namely SCG Cement-Building Materials, SCG Chemicals and SCG Packaging. Over the years, ABB has installed DC drives and DC motors in 12 cement plants owned by SCG.