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References
Changing hammers and knifes in sugar mills causes gaps in efficiency and a loss in production. UTP Maintenance customer Usina São Luiz SA was therefore looking for a better solution and found in a new welding procedure an amazing win: the increase of a hammer life cycle from 350,000 tons of cane to 750,000 tons and the increase of a knife life cycle from 350,000 tons of cane to 1,200,000 tons.
One of the production steps of Sugar & Ethanol mills consists of the grinding of sugar cane, where a set of hammers and knifes is used to prepare the cane before entering the mill rolls. During this step, the hammers and knifes are subjected to severe abrasion. The replacement of these components due to the severe abrasion results in a production stop and therefore in a loss of efficiency and production.
The Application Engineers of UTP Maintenance offered a new procedure to repair the hammers which would improve the components life time but would also be more complicated and use a new welding procedure. After promising findings, the new procedure was tested in the sugar mill under real conditions, which led to the following changes for the customer:
- Increase of hammer life cycle from 350,000 tons of cane to 750,000 tons
- Reduction of hammer changes from 7 to 3 per Season
- Increase of knife life cycle from 350,000 tons of cane to 1,200,000 tons
- Reduction of knife changes from 7 to 2 per Season
Customer benefits:
- Designed to resist high stress grinding abrasion at service temperature not exceeding 450 °C
- High chromium and carbon alloying gives a structure rich in chromium-carbides
- Excellent weldability
- High productivity
- Time and cost saving
Find the entire success story together with product features, field of use and customer benefits in the download area or here: