Marking the 111th anniversary since its founding, Loesche GmbH invited customers from all over the world to come to Düsseldorf for this year’s Loesche Symposium. The event held in Düsseldorf and Vienna from 5.09. – 09.09.2017 attracted more than 500 attendees. Over 50 nationalities met to discuss with each other the future of the cement industry. Highlights at the Symposium included a tour of the Lafarge Cement Plant in Mannersdorf and the new A TEC - Rocket Mill, Austria. Published on ZKG International | October 2017 Written by: Dipl.-Ing. Anett Fischer, ZKG International

1. www.zkg.de26 ZKG 10 2017
engineering and maintenance concepts contribute
to reducing energy consumption and enhancing
availability and flexibility. Sustainability also in-
volves the utilization of alternative fuels, for this
purpose the Loesche subsidiary A Tec offers the
Rocket Mill, a new, innovative comminution ma-
chine for producing high-quality alternative fuels.
For Jacques Glemarec, Senior Vice-President at
Lafarge Holcim, digitalization is the key to predic-
tive maintenance. In his talk “Global economy and
financial markets – an outlook”, he reported on
a project centring on a digital performance man-
agement system at LafargeHolcim. The goal is to
reduce costs and environmental influences and
increase productivity. With this system, there will
be a database open to everyone as well as data-
bases specially tailored to the individual plants. In
the database for the final users, plant data is to be
stored in such a way that maintenance is more ef-
Dr Thomas Loesche, Managing Shareholder at Loe-
sche GmbH, was delighted to welcome so many
guests from so many different parts of the world
to Düsseldorf. Besides the talks, this time a modern
form of interaction was on the agenda. Goal of the
BarCamp concluding the event was for the attend-
ees to exchange knowledge and discuss different
topics.
Under the heading “111 years of Loesche –
evolve the future”, Rüdiger Zerbe, Managing Direc-
tor at Loesche GmbH, outlined the further require-
ments for the cement industry: cement quality,
performance and sustainability. One trend in prod-
uct development are specialized applications,
with high strength, a perfect chemical resistance
and good workability. Pre-cast manufacturing is
becoming more important. For the production of
these cements, Loesche offers dedicated mills, for
example, for very fine grinding. Intelligent plant
LOESCHE SYMPOSIUM, DÜSSELDORF/GERMANY AND VIENNA/AUSTRIA
Loesche Symposium 2017 –
Evolve the future
Marking the 111th
anniversary since its founding, Loesche GmbH
invited customers from all over the world to come to Düsseldorf for this
year’s Loesche Symposium. The event held in Düsseldorf and Vienna from 5.09. – 09.09.2017
attracted more than 500 attendees. Over 50 nationalities met to discuss with each other
TEXT Dipl.-Ing. Anett Fischer, ZKG International
AnettFischer
the future of the cement industry. Highlights at the Symposium included a tour of the
Events
Lafarge Cement Plant in Mannersdorf and the new A Tec- Rocket Mill, Austria.

2. Events
ZKG 10 2017 27
fective. LafargeHolcim is starting this new project
in plants in France and India. But he stressed that
even with all the digitalization, the plant operator
was the key to success.
Dr Jörg Krämer, Chief Economist, Commer-
zbank, gave an outlook on “Global economy and
financial markets”. For China, he sees moderate but
stable growth. In the USA, there was nearly full
employment and house prices were higher than
2006. For the Eurozone, Krämer pointed to strong
growth. The unemployment rate was falling and
house prices rising in almost every country.
In his comprehensive “Outlook for global ce-
ment markets – HSBC perspective”, Asif Boda,
Managing Director, HSBC Bank London, men-
tioned a number of factors that should make ce-
ment producers optimistic: “1. Capacity additions
have slowed and will continue to slow. 2. Urbani-
zation is continuing apace in many markets and
will cement in the coming decade. 3. Infrastructure
investment is set to resume. 4. Increasing calls for
fiscal stimulus/reduced fiscal drag.”
Shen Jun, Chairman at Sinoma NDI, closed the
opening talks with a presentation of his company,
which is working closely with Loesche in a strate-
gic cooperation, Together the companies had al-
ready realized several projects, e.g. in Vietnam.
1 Production of high-quality cements
Prof. Dr Horst-Michael Ludwig, Bauhaus Univer-
sity of Weimar, spoke about “Products and trends
in the worldwide cement market”. He explained
the key trends in the industry: special products for
special applications and sustainability/lower CO2
emissions. One possibility to reduce CO2
emissions
is reduction of the clinker content, e.g. with the
use of LD slag. Loesche supplies two technologies
for this purpose: recovery of any metal content in
the slag and production of a reactive clinker-like
material. Research is currently underway on alter-
native technologies and materials, such as silica
fume products. Precondition for this is ultrafine
grinding, which is possible with the new Loesche
technology.
Production parameters influencing the cement
quality were presented by Dr Daniel Strohmeyer,
Loesche. Besides mechanical aspects (particle size
distribution / fineness and particle shape), chemical
aspects (gypsum dehydration and clinker prehydra-
tion) as well as operational aspects (process stability)
have to be taken into consideration. It was important
to find right balance between the different influenc-
ing parameters. With the portfolio of Loesche mills,
all types of cement can be produced. Benefits are:
low energy consumption, high flexibility and drying
capacity.
2 Achieving high production rates
Dr Mathias Reichert, Loesche, spoke on “How to
master the market demand for ever larger grinding
capacities”. VRMs are becoming bigger and bigger,
maximum drive power and average diameter are in-
creasing steadily, the reason for this is, among other
things, increasing kiln sizes. Economic aspects also
play a part, one larger mill, for example, require less
space than two smaller ones. He explained that the
modular design applied at Loesche saved not only on
weight, but also capital costs for space and parts. The
new cope drive, its active redundancy and its com-
pact design, efficiency could be further improved.
1 More than 500 at-
tendees from over 50
nations followed the
interesting talks
AnettFischer(1-7)
2 Breaks were used for
discussing experiences
3 To round off the Bar-
Camp, the results were
presented to the entire
auditorium

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28 ZKG 10 2017 www.zkg.de
The “Most modern grinding plants with world
largest cope” were presented by Dr Arif Bashir, D.G.
Khan Cement Co. Ltd. The cement industry is a big
player in Pakistan, 46.28 mill. t cement is currently
produced each year. For 2020, 76.28 mill. tpa are
expected. DG Khan Cement is regarded as the big-
gest cement producer in Pakistan. The new DG Khan
plant at Hub (9000 t/d clinker) is equipped with a
six-stage pyro-process. Three Loesche mills (raw
LM 72.5, coal LM 28.3 and cement LM 72.4+4) are
used for comminution. For clinker grinding, a ce-
ment mill LM 72.4+4 with cope drive is used, cur-
rently the largest Loesche mill worldwide. With a
total installed power of 10 000 kW, 450 t/h, at a
Blaine value of 3 200 cm²/g, is to be produced. Com-
missioning is scheduled for December 2017. Bashir
explained with reference to so far unpublished data
the advantages of one large compared to two small-
er mills:
»» production capacity: 28 % more
»» total concrete volume: 32 % less
»» total installed weight: 19 % less
»» completion period: 28 % less
»» total man-hours consumed: 17 % less
»» manpower for O&M: 20 % less
3 Cement grinding – more value for you
Ibnaan H. Shamir Pasha, Director Shun Shing
Group, spoke following on from an introduction by
Thomas Fahrland, Loesche, about the internation-
al Shun Shing Group (SSG) founded in 1988 and
headquartered in Hong Kong. On the agenda, up to
2021 are an expansion in Bangladesh (increasing
annual capacity from 3.5 mill. t to 7 mill. t by 2019,
installation of a 400 t/h VRM LM 70.4+4 CS V with
cope drive in the Dhaka plant, a new site in Chit-
tagong with a 180 t/h VRM), expansion in Dubai
(slag grinding mill) and a basic plant in Vietnam
and Cambodia as well as grinding projects in Philip-
pines and India.
A “Business model for a fast market entry” was
presented by Pierre Wlodarzyk, Loesche. Cement is
not always produced where it is needed. Particularly
in developing markets, the use of a Compact Ce-
ment Grinding (CCG) plants is a good alternative to
a stationary plant. Wlodarzyk explained the advan-
tages of a CCG, with which potential markets can
be tested, especially in emerging regions. All types
of cement are produced with the CCG plant (45 t/h
high-quality mixed cements and 30 t/h ultrafine ce-
ments).
In the last talk given on the first day of the event
“A compact grinding plant – from idea to execution”,
Dr Omar Bekri, General Director Cemos Ciment S.A.,
informed the attendees about the Cemos Group PLC
founded in 2011. The group focuses on the efficient
use of bitumen shale raw material in cement, power
and liquid fuels production. In 2018, Cemos Ciment
S.A., a newcomer and 100 % subsidiary of Cemos
Group PLC, is launching cement grinding operations
for the production of 270 000 tpa cement in Tarfaya
(Southern Morocco). This is the first phase of a more
ambitious project centring around producing clinker
out of Tarfaya oil shale.
In a parallel exhibition, 25 supplier companies
for the cement industry showcased their range of
products and services for cement. In addition, the
opportunity was available to look around a virtual
reality cement plant.
In the evening, Dr Thomas Loesche and with his
family greeted the entire community at the celebra-
tion dinner and reviewed Loesche’s 111 years.
4 Services – closer to the customer
Oliver Thomas, Primetec, kicked off the second day
of the symposium with his talk: “O&M Services:
Profitable and reliable production for our clients”.
O&M services are defined as taking over a client’s
process for better results. There are various models,
from operational support to full O&M. It is impor-
tant to understand the customer’s needs, competi-
tive advantages and markets.
In the talk “The new benchmark for modern
grinding parts”, Dr Dorival Tecco, Loesche, present-
ed among other things problems with cracks that
can arise when the surface treatment of wear parts is
not properly executed by external companies. Loe-
sche offers a wear part service tuned to its products.
“Digital interaction – the next service level” was
the subject addressed by Ralph Viebrock, Loesche.
He presented features of “MySpares”, a browser-
based platform. These include easy part identifica-
tion, spare part packages, OPEX reduction, quick re-
action time and so on. Goal of the digital interaction
is always to be closer to the customer through the
service.
5 Maximizing alternative fuel utilization
The last session of talks was devoted to alterna-
tive fuels. Matthias Mersmann, Aixergee, showed
the advantages of using alternative fuels and pre-
4 Three generations of the Loesche fam-
ily on their way to the plant tour
in Austria: Alexander, Anne and
Dr Thomas Loesche
5 Dr Joseph Kitzweger, Lafarge Cement
Plant in Mannersdorf, with Dr Thomas
und Alexander Loesche

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ZKG 10 2017 29
sented the equipment necessary for this. Increasing
quantities of fuels added have an influence on the
technology used and the fuel addition points. He
presented various options for adding the fuels, in
the calciner and/or the kiln. The Rocket Mill de-
veloped by A Tec is suitable for processing of low-
quality into high-quality fluff. A mixing chamber
and a combustion chamber are other options for
managing the use of large quantities of alternative
fuels. In collaboration with A Tec, Aixergee offers
process modelling to enable better analysis of the
processes taking place.
“New ways for processing of alternative fu-
els” were then shown by Dr Stefan Kern, A Tec.
For complete combustion, time, temperature and
turbulence are important factors. For the Lafarge
Cement Plant in Mannersdorf, A Tec has built a
calciner with a post-combustion chamber to enable
the use of 100 % SAF. The plant takes high-quality
RDF from a Rocket Mill RM 2.5 Double, which fea-
tures an increased specific surface (50 % < 5mm).
Bernd Schaflechner, Plant Manager Wiet-
ersdorfer & Peggauer Zementwerke GmbH, then
briefly reported on his practical experience with
a prototype of the Rocket Mill. This was, he said,
simple and rugged and saved treatment costs. He
testified that the clinker fired with the alternative
fuels used was of high quality.
In her talk “Waste to profit”, Tais Mazza, Loe-
sche, gave an overview of global waste volumes.
What type of waste is produced depends on many
regional factors, as did its utilization, too. In this
connection, she explained how the cement indus-
try was competing with, for example, power plants
that incinerate waste.
6 BarCamp
The afternoon programme included a first for the
cement industry: interactive workshops as part
of a BarCamp. Under the main headings: human
resources, alternative fuels, maintenance & wear
parts, design & process, competition and finance,
various topics were discussed in small groups. To
round off, the results were then presented to the
entire auditorium.
7 Plant tour to Austria
On Friday morning, around 200 attendees set off
to Austria to view the new calciner in the cement
plant in Mannersdorf and the Rocket Mill at the
FCC Group in Vienna Neustadt.
A Tec has built a new calciner for the Lafarge-
Holcim plant in Mannersdorf. The new calciner is
erected in an 80-m-high tower next to the existing
heat exchange tower. The calciner is operated with
100 % coarse SAF (80 mm/> 15 GJ/t). The pyropro-
cess was modified so that instead of a separate line,
an in-line calciner is used with a post-combustion
chamber on top of the calciner.
In the afternoon, the group viewed the A Tec
Rocket Mill double. The Rocket Mill combines dry-
ing and grinding of alternative fuel in one step.
The machine is equipped with two grinding cham-
bers. The input material usually only requires one
pre-shredding step followed by a sieving step and
magnetic separation.
8 Conclusion
After three days of informative talks, results-ori-
ented discussions, technical talks and insightful
tours, the 2017 Loesche Symposion came to an end.
The high number of international attendees and a
good support programme ensured everyone had
the opportunity to discuss the worldwide cement
industry with each other.
www.loesche.com
6 The new calciner built by A Tec
7 The attendees inspected the new calciner in groups