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Towards a smart world

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IT has been making radical changes in how we do things, and the cement industry is no exception. Condition monitoring of high-value assets is an age old practice, but the novelty brought in by IT, is on line condition monitoring even from remote places. DALOG from Germany has taken pioneering steps to propagate the idea.

To prevent breakdowns is good but the goal must be to avoid machine failures from the beginning. This has been the aim of the DALOG GmbH for almost two decades. Ever since their online condition monitoring systems helped to maximise the availability of machines by making precise analysis and supporting the plant team remotely with failure predictions, maintenance preparation support, and even advice for process improvement. Yet, the outcome on the production can only be assured by an interconnected monitoring solution that covers the full value chain of the cement production process.

Process correlated condition monitoring
Creating save islands in the plants by monitoring the most critical assets with acceleration and temperature sensors allows to predict failures on gears and bearings before they end in a catastrophic breakdown. A tooth failure on a gear can be detected before it breaks off and turns into a loose cannon within the gearbox. A bearing with upcoming pitting can be ordered in time. Statistical models even allow to predict the remaining lifetime of a machine component. In general, failures are detected at an early stage, which gives time to act and plan. Plants benefit from less unplanned stoppages and a minimisation of secondary damages.

The next logical goal is to increase the time between failures, by optimising operational stability. The torque measurement on rotating shafts has shown to precisely measure the real load on the machine and a high frequency measurement shows peaks not visible in the motor power. Consequently, it is a valuable tool to evaluate operational stability and to detect dangerous overloads on the machine. This is especially important for machines with a high dynamic process like vertical roller mills and roller presses, where operational instability can often be related to issues in the grinding elements or the process, like an improper feed. For a root cause analysis in the process, the online condition monitoring system needs to be able to communicate with the PLC to receive parameters like feed rate, pressures and motor power; sending alarms and trends to the DCS, helps to integrate the operators in the project, which gives them the necessary information to take appropriate measures to prevent machine failures or instabilities.

One of the big challenges for the cement industry towards a successful transition to the digital factory, will be the standardisation of communication protocols. OEM proprietary protocols dominate the cement plants and given that this situation will not change soon, the DALOG condition monitoring system supports most of the fieldbus protocols, to establish a bi-directional communication with the PLC. The key elements to prevent failure in the future are real load measurements with a torque sensor, the data exchange (process and condition) between the condition monitoring system and machine control, and the integration to the operator.

Online data acquisition for all machines
The industry has made great progress in the last years with its maintenance strategies. The FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) today is a standard tool evaluate risks and thus even today many of the most critical machines, like mills and kilns, are equipped with an online condition monitoring system and respectively covered by the predictive maintenance strategy. Nevertheless, less complex and smaller equipment, like fans, conveyors, or bucket elevators, often fall through the net, besides its clear impact on the production. The maintenance strategy for those machines in today`s plants are either "run to breakdown", preventive, or condition based with temporal measurements on the equipment. They all have in common that the initial investment is very low, but the ongoing operational costs are soaring. The run to failure strategy bears a lot of risks and will cause unplanned stoppages and production loss.

Preventive maintenance reduces the risk, but relies solely on life-time estimations or manual inspections to schedule maintenance intervals. This either results in changing machine parts too early or too late, one ends in higher spare part investment, the other in production loss. Condition based maintenance intervals can be achieved by mobile measurements. Yet, the quality and reliability of an analysis with mobile equipment has a high variance. They are time consuming and must be carried out by trained personal that needs to fulfill a rigid schedule taking those measurements. Risks involve selecting a non-optimal measurement position, not considering different machine production situations at the time of the reading, or in the worst case, not taking the measurement after all. Trend analysis and process correlation is in the best case suboptimal.

The cement plant of the future will solely rely on a predictive and proactive maintenance strategy, which bases its decisions on data from online condition monitoring systems. The advantage lies on the hand: while reducing time consuming field work, the plant can count on more precise measurements and a higher data density, thus a higher reliability of their predictions and consequently a higher availability of the plant.

New challenges for maintenance
As the data density increases and analysis algorithms improve, what about the typical tasks for the maintenance team? While it is possible to measure the impacts of the tropical rain fall on the feed of a vertical roller mill in a cement plant in the Philippines, or to detect the effects of sand (silica) on the operational stability in a roller press in the Mid-West, it is yet a great task to integrate all the external influences into an algorithm that could replace the judgement of a trained expert. On the other hand, as reliability increases and field work decreases, more time and effort will be spent on performance optimisation and the collected data will build the foundation to plan, carry out and measure the outcomes of such initiatives. Experienced vibration analysis, maintenance, and process experts from DALOG, guide already today many plants to interpret the data and optimise their performance.

Online condition monitoring
How can online condition monitoring go even further and support a company-wide strategy? Wikipedia defines strategy as "a high-level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty". It is clear how online condition monitoring continuously provides information to maintenance to eliminate uncertainty. But why stop there? The DALOG online condition monitoring solution acquires data in high resolution to evaluate machine condition, operational stability and process parameters that will help to evaluate the overall performance. The latest software generation DALOG Busy Bee calculates KPIs and statistics that are visualised in customisable dashboards. It is possible to display statistics about machine availability, energy consumption and operational stability, to name just a few. Surely, the access to the data is not limited locally to plant facilities. An encrypted connection to the cloud permits to access the data worldwide from a laptop, smartphone or tablet. This allows regional managers and headquarters to gain insight about the performance and condition of cement plants of a region, or country, thus any production strategy within the organisation will be exposed to less uncertainty.

A look back and the possibilities we have today
DALOG was founded in 1998. Back then, it was state-of-the-art to equip the monitoring system with a GSM module to dial up and establish a 9.6 kBit/s connection. Few people back then could have imagined that today most plants have access to the internet 1,00,000 times faster (1 Gbit/s). I would not dare to make a prediction for the technology we will have in 20 years, but I can say what is possible since today.

The DALOG Plant Protection Concept is a bottom up approach where on the lowest layer data is collected and stored on the cloud.

The massive amount of data is processed to be useful for different stakeholders within the same organisation. The maintenance team can work with precise failure analyses and can plan maintenance intervals based on machine condition and proactively work on increasing the time between machine failures.

The production team gains statistics and models for production planning. The plant manager can evaluate overall plant performance comfortably from his smartphone. In the end, online condition monitoring will build the foundation, for a seamless integration of data-driven decision making within the whole organisation.

Courtesy: DALOG, Diagnosesysteme GmbH, Muehlbachstr. 21

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Economy & Market

Precision in Motion

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A deep dive into Power Build’s core gear series products – M, C, F, K

At the heart of every high-performance industrial system lies the need for robust, reliable and efficient power transmission. Power Build answers this need with its flagship geared motor series: M, C, F and K. Each series is meticulously engineered to serve specific operational demands while maintaining the universal promise of durability, efficiency
and performance.

Series M – Helical Inline Geared Motors
Compact and powerful, the Series M delivers exceptional drive solutions for a broad range of applications. With power handling up to 160kW and torque capacity reaching 20,000 Nm, it is the trusted solution for industries requiring quiet operation, high efficiency, and space-saving design. Series M is available with multiple mounting and motor options, making it a versatile choice for manufacturers and OEMs globally.

Series C – Right Angled Heli-Worm Geared Motors
Combining the benefits of helical and worm gearing, the Series C is designed for right-angled power transmission. With gear ratios of up to 16,000:1 and torque capacities of up to 10,000 Nm, this series is optimal for applications demanding precision in compact spaces. Industries looking for a smooth, low-noise operation with maximum torque efficiency rely on Series C for dependable performance.

Series F – Parallel Shaft Mounted Geared Motors
Built for endurance in the most demanding environments, Series F is widely adopted in steel plants, hoists, cranes and heavy-duty conveyors. Offering torque up to 10,000 Nm and high gear ratios up to 20,000:1, this product features an integral torque arm and diverse output configurations to meet industry-specific challenges head-on.

Series K – Right Angle Helical Bevel Geared Motors
For industries seeking high efficiency and torque-heavy performance, Series K is the answer. This right-angled geared motor series delivers torque up to 50,000 Nm, making it a preferred choice in core infrastructure sectors such as cement, power, mining, and material handling. Its flexibility in mounting and broad motor options offer engineers freedom in design and reliability in execution.
Together, these four series reflect Power Build’s commitment to excellence in mechanical power transmission. From compact inline designs to robust right-angle drives, each geared motor is a result of decades of engineering innovation, customer-focused design and field-tested reliability. Whether the requirement is speed control, torque multiplication, or space efficiency, Radicon’s Series M, C, F and K stand as trusted powerhouses for global industries.

https://www.powerbuild.in
Call: +919727719344

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Economy & Market

TSR Will Define Which Cement Companies Win India’s Net-Zero Race

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Jignesh Kundaria, Director and CEO, Fornnax Technology

India is simultaneously grappling with two crises: a mounting waste emergency and an urgent need to decarbonise its most carbon-intensive industries. The cement sector, the second-largest in the world and the backbone of the nation’s infrastructure ambitions, sits at the centre of both. It consumes enormous quantities of fossil fuel, and it has the technical capacity to consume something else entirely: the waste our cities cannot get rid of.

According to CPCB and NITI Aayog projections, India generates approximately 62.4 million tonnes of municipal solid waste annually, with that figure expected to reach 165 million tonnes by 2030. Much of this waste is energy-rich and non-recyclable. At the same time, cement kilns operate at material temperatures of approximately 1,450 degrees Celsius, with gas temperatures reaching 2,000 degrees. This high-temperature environment is ideal for co-processing, ensuring the complete thermal destruction of organic compounds without generating toxic residues. The physics are in our favour. The infrastructure is not.

Pre-processing is not the support act for co-processing. It is the main event. Get the particle size wrong, get the moisture wrong, get the calorific value wrong and your kiln thermal stability will suffer the consequences.

The Regulatory Push Is Real

The Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules 2026 mandate that cement plants progressively replace solid fossil fuels with Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF), starting at a 5 per cent baseline and scaling to 15 per cent within six years. NITI Aayog’s 2026 Roadmap for Cement Sector Decarbonisation targets 20 to 25 per cent Thermal Substitution Rate (TSR) by 2030. Beyond compliance, every tonne of coal replaced by RDF generates measurable carbon reductions which is monetisable under India’s emerging Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS). TSR is no longer a sustainability metric. It is a financial lever.

Yet our own field assessments across multiple Indian cement plants reveal a sobering reality: the primary barrier to scaling AFR adoption is not waste availability. It is the fragmented and under-engineered pre-processing ecosystem that sits between the waste and the kiln.

Why Indian Waste Is a Different Engineering Problem

Indian municipal solid waste is not the material that imported shredding equipment was designed for. Our waste streams frequently exceed 40 per cent to 50 per cent moisture content, particularly during monsoon cycles, saturated with abrasive inerts including sand, glass, and stone. Plants relying on imported OEM equipment face months of downtime awaiting proprietary spare parts. Machines built for segregated, low-moisture waste fail quickly and disrupt the entire pre-processing operation in Indian conditions.

The two most common failures we observe are what I call the biting teeth problem and the chewing teeth problem. Plants relying solely on a primary shredder reduce bulk waste to large fractions, but the output remains too coarse for stable kiln combustion. Others attempt to use a secondary shredder as a standalone unit without a primary stage to pre-size the feed, leading to catastrophic mechanical failure. When both stages are present but mismatched in throughput capacity, the system becomes a bottleneck. Achieving the 40 to 70 tonnes per hour required for meaningful coal displacement demands a precisely coordinated two-stage process.

Engineering a Made-in-India Answer

At Fornnax, our response to these challenges is grounded in one principle: Indian waste demands Indian engineering. Our systems are built around feedstock homogeneity, the holy grail of kiln stability. Consistent particle size and predictable calorific value are the foundation of stable kiln combustion. Without them, no TSR target is achievable at scale.

Our SR-MAX2500 Dual Shaft Primary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive) processes raw, baled, or loosely mixed MSW, C&I waste, bulky waste, and plastics, reducing them to approximately 150 mm fractions at throughputs of up to 40 tonnes per hour. The R-MAX 3300 Single Shaft Secondary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive), introduced in 2025, takes that primary output and produces RDF fractions in the 30 to 80 mm range at up to 30 tonnes per hour, specifically optimised for consistent kiln feeding. We have also introduced electric drive configurations under the SR-100 HD series, with capacities between 5 and 40 tonnes per hour, already operational at a leading Indian waste-processing facility.

Looking ahead, Fornnax is expanding its portfolio with the upcoming SR-MAX3600 Hydraulic Drive primary shredder at up to 70 tonnes per hour and the R-MAX2100 Hydraulic drive secondary shredder at up to 20 tonnes per hour, designed specifically for the large-scale throughput that higher TSR ambitions require.

The Investment Case Is Now

The 2070 Net-Zero target is not a distant goal for India’s cement sector. It starts today, with decisions being made on the plant floor.

The SWM Rules 2026 are already in effect, requiring cement plants to replace coal with RDF. Carbon credit markets are opening up, and coal prices are not going to get cheaper. Every tonne of coal a cement plant replaces with waste-derived fuel saves money on one side and generates carbon credit revenue on the other. Pre-processing infrastructure is no longer just a compliance requirement. It is a business investment with a measurable return.

The good news is that nothing is missing. The technology works. The waste is available in every Indian city. The government has provided the policy direction. The only thing standing between where the industry is today and where it needs to be is the commitment to build the right infrastructure.

The cement companies that move now will not just meet the regulations. They will be ahead of every competitor that waits.

About The Author

Jignesh Kundaria is the Director and CEO of Fornnax Technology. Over an experience spanning more than two decades in the recycling industry, he has established himself as one of India’s foremost voices on waste-to-fuel technology and alternative fuel infrastructure.

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Concrete

Reimagining Logistics: Spatial AI and Digital Twins

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Digital twins and spatial AI are transforming cement logistics by enabling real-time visibility, predictive decision-making, and smarter multi-modal operations across the supply chain. Dijam Panigrahi highlights how immersive AR/VR training is bridging workforce skill gaps, helping companies build faster, more efficient, and future-ready logistics systems.

As India accelerates infrastructure investment under flagship programs such as PM GatiShakti and the National Infrastructure Pipeline, the pressure on cement manufacturers to deliver reliably, efficiently, and cost-effectively has never been greater. Yet for all the modernisation that has taken place on the production side, the end-to-end logistics chain, from clinker dispatch to the last-mile delivery of bagged cement to construction sites, remains a domain riddled with inefficiencies, opacity and manual decision-making.
The good news is that a new generation of spatial computing technologies is now mature enough to transform this reality. Digital twins, spatial artificial intelligence (AI) and immersive augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) training platforms are converging to offer cement producers something they have long sought: real-time visibility, autonomous decision-making at the operational edge, and a scalable solution to the persistent skills gap that hampers workforce performance.

Advancing logistics with digital twins
The cement supply chain is uniquely complex. A single integrated plant may manage limestone quarrying, kiln operations, grinding, packing and despatch simultaneously, with finished product flowing through rail, road, and waterway networks to reach hundreds of regional depots and distribution points. Coordinating this network using spreadsheets, siloed ERP data, and phone calls is not merely inefficient; it is a structural liability in a competitive market where delivery reliability is a key differentiator.
Digital twin technology offers a way out. A cement logistics digital twin is a continuously updated, three-dimensional virtual replica of the entire supply chain, from the truck loading bays at the plant to the inventory levels at district depots. By ingesting data from IoT sensors on conveyor belts and packing machines, GPS trackers on road and rail fleets, weighbridge records, and weather feeds, the digital twin provides planners with a single, authoritative picture of where every ton of cement is, in real time.
The value, however, goes well beyond visibility. Because the digital twin mirrors the physical system in dynamic detail, it can run scenario simulations before decisions are executed. If a primary rail corridor is disrupted, logistics managers can model alternative routing options, shifting volumes to road or coastal shipping, and assess the cost and time implications within minutes rather than days. If a packing line at the plant is running below capacity, the twin can automatically recalculate dispatch schedules downstream and alert depot managers to adjust receiving resources accordingly.
For cement companies operating multi-plant networks across geographies as varied as Rajasthan and the North-East, this kind of end-to-end situational awareness is transformative. It collapses information latency from hours to seconds, enables proactive rather than reactive logistics management, and creates the data foundation upon which AI-driven decision-making can be built. Companies that have deployed logistics digital twins in comparable heavy-industry contexts have reported reductions in transit time variability of up to 20 per cent and meaningful decreases in demurrage and detention costs, savings that flow directly to the bottom line.

Smart logistics operations
A digital twin is only as powerful as the intelligence layer that sits on top of it. This is where Spatial AI becomes the critical differentiator for cement logistics.
Traditional logistics management systems are reactive. They record what has happened and flag exceptions after the fact. Spatial AI systems, by contrast, are proactive. They continuously analyse the state of the logistics network as represented in the digital twin, identify emerging bottlenecks before they crystallise into delays, and recommend corrective actions.
At the plant gate, AI-powered visual inspection systems using spatial depth-sensing cameras can assess truck conditions, verify load integrity and confirm seal tamper status in seconds, replacing the manual checks that currently slow throughput. At the depot level, Spatial AI can monitor stock drawdown rates in real time, cross-reference them against pending customer orders and inbound shipment ETAs, and automatically trigger replenishment orders when safety thresholds are approached. In transit, AI systems processing GPS and telematics data can detect anomalous vehicle behaviour, including extended stops, route deviations, speed irregularities and alert fleet managers instantly.
Perhaps most significantly for Indian cement logistics, Spatial AI can optimise the complex multi-modal routing decisions that are central to competitive cost management. Given the variability in road quality, seasonal accessibility, rail rake availability, and regional demand patterns across India’s vast geography, the combinatorial complexity of routing optimisation is beyond human planners working with conventional tools. AI systems can process this complexity continuously and adapt routing recommendations as conditions change, reducing empty running, improving vehicle utilisation and cutting fuel costs.
The agentic dimension of modern AI is particularly relevant here. Agentic AI systems do not merely analyse and recommend; they act. In a cement logistics context, this means an AI system that can, within pre-authorised boundaries, directly communicate revised dispatch instructions to plant teams, update booking confirmations with freight forwarders and reallocate available rail rakes across plant locations, all without waiting for a human to process a recommendation and make a call. For logistics executives, this represents a genuine shift from managing a workforce to setting the rules of engagement and reviewing outcomes. The operational tempo achievable with agentic AI simply cannot be matched by human-in-the-loop systems working at the pace of emails and phone calls.

Bridging the skills gap
Technology investments in digital twins and spatial AI will deliver diminishing returns if the human workforce cannot operate effectively within the new systems they create. This is a challenge that India’s cement industry cannot afford to underestimate. The sector relies on a large, geographically dispersed workforce, including truck drivers, depot managers, despatch supervisors, fleet maintenance technicians, many of whom have been trained on paper-based processes and manual workflows. Retraining this workforce for a digitised, AI-augmented environment is a substantial undertaking, and conventional classroom or on-the-job training methods are poorly suited to the scale and pace required.
Immersive AR and VR training platforms offer a fundamentally different approach. By creating photorealistic, interactive simulations of logistics environments, such as a plant dispatch bay, a depot yard, the interior of a cement truck cab, allow workers to practice complex procedures and decision-making scenarios in a safe, consequence-free virtual environment. A depot manager can work through a simulated rail rake delay scenario, making decisions about customer allocation and communication
without the pressure of real orders being affected. A truck driver can practice the correct procedure for securing a load of bagged cement without the risk of a road incident.
The learning science case for immersive training is compelling. Studies consistently show that experiential, simulation-based learning produces faster skill acquisition and higher retention rates than didactic instruction, with some research indicating retention rates three to four times higher for VR-based training compared to classroom methods. For complex operational procedures where muscle memory and situational awareness matter as much as conceptual knowledge, the advantage of immersive simulation is even more pronounced.
Today’s leading cloud-based spatial computing platforms enable high-fidelity AR and VR training experiences to be delivered on standard mobile devices, removing the hardware barrier that has historically made immersive training impractical for large, distributed workforces. This is particularly relevant for cement companies with depots and logistics operations in tier-two and tier-three locations, where access to specialised training hardware cannot be assumed.
The integration of AR into live operations also creates ongoing learning opportunities beyond formal training programs. As an example, maintenance technicians equipped with AR overlays can receive step-by-step guidance for equipment procedures directly in their field of view, reducing error rates and service times for critical plant and fleet assets.

New strategy, new horizons
India’s cement industry is entering a period of intensifying competition, rising logistics costs, and demanding customers with shrinking tolerance for delivery variability. The companies that will lead over the next decade will be those that treat logistics not as a cost centre to be minimised, but as a strategic capability to be built.
Digital twins, spatial AI and immersive AR/VR training are not distant future technologies, they are deployable today on infrastructure that Indian cement companies already operate. The question is not whether to adopt them, but how quickly to do so and where to begin.

About the author:
Dijam Panigrahi is Co-Founder and COO of GridRaster Inc., a provider of cloud-based spatial computing platforms that power high-quality digital twin and immersive AR/VR experiences on mobile devices for enterprises. GridRaster’s technology is deployed across manufacturing, logistics and infrastructure sectors globally.

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