Ragland Makes Strides in 2023

The goal for 2024 is to increase clinker production to the plant’s capacity of 1.6 million tons, according to Jerome Fremiot, plant manager. Getting the plant -- which employs a wide variety of new technology -- up and running was a challenge.

“This is today’s state-of-the-art in terms of cement plants. But it’s a new tool. So, for sure, even though everything has been designed properly, you still have some surprises.

There’s a learning curve. We had to train our people, set new objectives, put in place an action plan, and grow everything together.”

Technology Boosts Efficiency and Consistency

“First, it’s all about raw material,” Jerome says. “The plant features a pre-homogenization pile for the clay to better control the mix of the different types of clays used to produce the clinker.” Automatic, in-line cross-belt analysis of the material, before it hits the raw mill, also helps ensure consistency. “The cross-belt analyzer is a real plus in our quality control, to make sure that we are as consistent as possible. Then, after our raw mill, we have an automatic sampler, that will take a sample and send it to the laboratory for analysis after the material has been ground. They are always collected in the same way. And then, we have a robot that prepares the samples. We don’t have any drift due to an operator doing the thing one way and another operator doing it differently.”

Building for the Future

“2023 was a year of preparation,” says Jerome. “It was ramp-up and optimization. The team worked countless hours to make that happen. 2024 will be the year where we start to show exactly what we can do with this new line. We want to capitalize on everything that has been implemented in 2023, and to reach some very ambitious targets. We want to set the basis for the future.”