Power & Electrical Confidential

Rotary Kiln External Housing Thermal Monitoring

A cement kiln is a steel cylinder 80 meters long, slowly turning while burning fuel inside.

01 The Problem

A cement kiln is a steel cylinder 80 meters long and four meters wide, slowly turning while burning fuel inside. The refractory brick lining the inside wears unevenly. When a brick spalls and falls off, the steel shell underneath gets exposed to direct flame and starts to deform. By the time the operator sees a glowing red patch on the outside, the kiln body is bent and the repair bill exceeds $50 million.

The Risk

A cement kiln is a steel cylinder 80 meters long, slowly turning while burning fuel inside. The refractory brick lining wears unevenly.

Detection Gap

When a brick spalls, the steel shell underneath gets exposed to direct flame and can deform. A single major overhaul exceeds $50M.

02 The OctosX Solution

Self-powered Thermalpas sensors sit around the kiln housing at intervals matched to the refractory zones — 12 in a typical deployment. Each sensor reports back to a fixed gateway. OctosX renders a temperature profile around the kiln circumference, so operators see hot zones developing weeks before they become visible.

Sensor & Edge

Self-powered Thermalpas sensors sit at intervals around the kiln housing, matched to the refractory zones. Each sensor reports to a fixed gateway.

Cloud Logic & Alerting

OctosX visualizes the temperature profile around the kiln circumference — operators see hot zones developing weeks before they reach failure.

03 The Outcome

One cement plant detected a small temperature anomaly on the southern arc of its kiln two weeks before the next scheduled shutdown. Maintenance found and replaced the underlying refractory brick during a planned 8-hour outage for $800K. They avoided a kiln-deformation overhaul that would have cost $30 million and shut the plant for two months.

Field Detection

One cement plant detected a temperature anomaly two weeks before the next scheduled shutdown. Maintenance found and replaced the refractory brick during a planned 8-hour outage for $800K.

Quantified Impact

They avoided a kiln-deformation overhaul that would have cost $30M+ and shut the plant for two months.

Key Numbers

12Sensors around kiln

2 wksEarly-detection lead

$30M+Overhaul avoided

See it in your plant

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