The World Cement Interview: A Century of Achievements

1. Dr Loesche opening the
special two-day conference.
The Last month Loesche celebrated its 100th
WORLD CEMENT Interview: Anniversary by staging a two-day Symposium
A Century Of
in Düsseldorf. Paul Maxwell-Cook
used the occasion to interview the company’s
Achievements
Chairman, Dr Thomas Loesche, about past
achievements and future prospects.
In the beginning
It all began in 1906 when Curt von Grueber, on
his return to Germany from the United States
with the design of the Kent mill, set up an office mill, several important discover-
in Berlin. He extended his product range in 1912 ies about the size and number
by including a ring-roller mill which had also of rollers on the grinding table
originated in the US. In the same year the present led to a new generation of mills.
owner’s grandfather, Ernst Curt Loesche joined the These incorporated a gear unit
company as a young engineer. that was separate from the housing,
This anniversary year is obviously a very special one and by a horizontal grinding track
for this famous German company. What did Thomas with two rollers. Loesche mills were
Loesche consider were the significant developments that becoming truly international with orders
have kept the company at the forefront of comminution from Latin America, India and Japan.
technology since those early days? “My grandfather What is the oldest Loesche mill that is still in operation
invented the vertical mill with a flat table in 1927. This in a cement plant, or indeed in any other industrial plant?
was the most important milestone. The successful sale “The oldest mills that I have seen in operation were built
of the first 4-roller mill in 1972, the invention of the in 1940, and are four identical LM 14s for grinding slag
2+2 and 3+3 technology in 1993 and the first sale of which were installed in the first Alpine industrial complex
the 6-roller mill in 2005 mark the important steps in in Linz, Austria,” says Loesche. “ I visited the plant in 1989.
our history developments as related to comminution Three of the four mills were running with a throughput
technology.” of 2 tph and a residue of 10% on 200 µm.”
In the years following the invention of the roller Was Dr Thomas able to say how many Loesche mills
REPRINTED FROM October 2006 World CemenT
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2. were currently in opera- It has been reported
tion in cement plants that Chinese equipment
around the world. “On suppliers are looking to
the basis that all the mills become very active in
we have sold in the past Europe, and no doubt
30 years are in operation, the current Russian
I would say the number is expansion programme
approximately 700.” will encourage them to
pitch for contracts in that
Size matters country. Thomas Loesche
VRMs have become bigger points out that European
and bigger with increasing suppliers, including
throughputs, especially in his own company, are
the years since Dr Loesche formimg cooperations
first became involved with Chinese suppliers
in the business in 1984. to provide competitive
For example, in 1998 the plants for customers.
company supplied one of It is interesting to
the largest vertical cement note that Loesche is
mills to a Peruvian cement manufacturing more
plant. What is the limit on equipment in Germany
the size and throughput than ever before
of a vertical cement mill, with their long-term
bearing in mind the high sub contractors. “They
costs of energy these have invested in the
days? “Recently we sold a right moment to cope
cement mill with a capac- with international
ity of 300 tph and we competition.”
have reached the guar- As with all success-
anteed capacity in the ful companies, research
first couple of operating and development plays
hours,” replies Loesche. an important part in
“Theoretically, I do not see A typical LM56.3+3 mill as installed in India some years ago. developing new models or
a limit within that capacity. techniques. “The success of
Ten years ago we sold three same sized vertical roller research and development is not proportional to the
mills for raw material (one), and cement (two) for a money invested, “ says Loesche. “It is more the time,
4000 tpd kiln line. As the average kiln size has increased commitment and focus of people with experience and
ever since we have sold the same concept with one raw inspiration. Including myself, we have 20 people within
material and two cement mills for kilns from 6000 tpd to the Loesche Group who are permanently working on
8000 tpd. As kilns increase beyond 10 000 tpd, we will research and development.”
have the right answer for our clients.” It is obvious that the major cement players are con-
In addition to the cement industry, Loesche mills centrating their efforts in strengthening their positions
and classifiers are in operation in the minerals industry. in China and India. Is this good news for the equipment
What is the proportion of orders for the cement industry suppliers? “The majority of our contracts in China and
compared with those for minerals? Loesche has a short India are with Chinese and Indian customers. If one
reply. “At the moment our total product market share of the big European and Mexican cement players is
for the cement industry is over 80% due to a boom in investing into those countries they absorb a lot of cash
the machine supply for the cement industry.” flow for these diversifications, and will order equipment
Since the mid-1990s the company has been successful normally after they have consolidated their investments.
in supplying mills for slag grinding. Such grinding in the It is good and bad news at the same time.”
cement manufacturing process is becoming more and Finally, as the company embarks on the next
more important, which will mean more business for 100 years, what of the future? New products? New alli-
Loesche. Most of the company’s mills that grind slag can ances? The Chairman concludes, “In 100 years of history
also grind cement and mixed cements with slag, volcanic we have had extreme ups and downs. It is our experience
ash, flyash or limestone additions. that in those times it is best for the company if you do
what you can do best, and do it efficiently. As our order
Coping with competition intake is slightly more than planned and already covers
There is much competition in the roller mill business, the turnover for 2008, we are not in a hurry. We want to
and Loesche has experienced tough competition from maintain the satisfaction of our clients and increase our
predominantly European suppliers. service efficiency.”_________________________________u
Reprinted from World CemenT October 2006
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3. Dipl.-Ing. Michael Keyssner
Head of Research & Development
“Constantly improving.” Our R&D department has made it their mandate
to constantly look for ways to make our mills even
Our employees in the research and development more efficient, safer, and kinder to the environment.
department are driven by the pursuit of one goal: The results of their theoretical and practical research
to continuously improve the pre-eminent Loesche lead to improvements in our technology which
vertical roller mill technology. directly benefit our customers.
Implementing innovations
in cooperation with our customers.
Prime targets for us are permanent improvement of R&D processes and imple- Using Loesche´s well proven grinding system with individually guided rollers,
mentation of the latest innovations to generate maximum mill reliability and introduced under a 2-, 3- and 4-roller arrangement in the 70´s, the new 6-roller
optimum benefits for our customers. The development of the patented 2+2 and mills were designed to achieve the highest possible capacities. Strict reduction
3+3 roller system for cement and slag grinding is one of the most important of roller mass motion to limit the dynamic loads on the foundation and the
examples of successful cooperation during the last decade. More than 100 mills vibration level of mills has been achieved. The success of our developments is
of this system have already been sold; many of them are repeat orders based on the synergy between theoretical and intensive experimental investiga-
due to satisfied customers. The newly developed 6-roller mill for cement raw tion at our research institute, as well as on industrially sized mills in cooperation
material grinding with a capacity of up to 1,200 t/h is another excellent example. with our customers. More information at www.loesche.com
REPRINTED FROM October 2006 World CemenT
Loesche GmbH · D-40549 Düsseldorf · Hansaallee 243 · Tel. +49-211-5353-0 · Fax +49-211-5353-500 · E-Mail: loesche@loesche.de
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