Hanson is a cement production company located in the United Kingdom. It used to be called Castle Cement before the rebranding in 2009. The concern is part of the HeidelbergCement Group and currently employs 3,500 people in jobs ranging from specialist and professional managers through to production operatives. The principal markets of Hanson are the major contributions in England, Wales and the central belt of Scotland. Hanson Cement takes the environment very seriously. Therefore, the company installed a 12MW solar farm which replaces 2/3 of the burned coal with alternative fuels. In addition, Hanson was the first UK cement producer to carry out annual environmental audits of its sites. Furthermore, the Ketton site, is a flagship plant in working with local conservation groups to protect the biodiversity. Today it is one of the most efficient cement-factories in Europe. However, the cooler produced a lot of wasted heat, so Hanson was convinced there is still additional frame for improvements. This is how Siemens Large Drives Applications (LDA) came into play.

So far Hanson Cement and Siemens already been cooperating closely with one another. Therefore, Hanson invited some engineers to find solutions for an increased energy efficiency. Together they decided that it would be a good step forward to install variable speed drives on the cooler. These drives give Hanson the opportunity to cool down the clinker to variable stages according to the needs of the plant, which leads to a more energy-efficient production process.

The SIMOTICS HV M motors which driving the back-filter fans, are controlled by the SINAMICS PERFECT HAMRONY GH180 drives. Each day over 1000 data points are captured to the cloud. Through the implementation of SIDRIVE IQ together with Siemens, Hanson Cement can use the collected data to monitor the drive-train 24/7 and to plan their maintenance intelligently. Due to this data-analytics system, Siemens is able to offer services such as Expert Assistance and Expert Diagnostics.  

Hanson Cement never imagined that the cooperation with Siemens would have such an impact on their daily business. Together, problems can be solved before they arise.                  

LDA Solutions at a glance:

• Since Hanson Cement has very restrictive rules about data security a two-way connection system was no option for them. 
• Accordingly, the Siemens Service experts proposed to use SIDRIVE IQ Services as the one-way communication solution. 

• Therefore, all existing equipment was connected to the SIDRIVE IQ platform: 
• 2 x SINAMICS PERFECT HARMONY GH180 and 2 x High-Voltage-Motors at Ketton site 
• 1 x SINAMICS PERFECT HARMONY GH180, 1 x SINAMICS GM150 and 2 x High-Voltage-Motors at Purfleet works

• Furthermore, the customer requires for Siemens to provide an own infrastructure, so a M876 cellular modem was implemented. 
• As soon as the assets were connected Hanson Cement was able to benefit from SIDRIVE IQ Services to a greater amount, since the related digital cloud- and expert-based services optimized the availability and productivity of their plant to the fullest extent possible. 
• By use of Expert Diagnostics, Siemens service experts continuously monitor the connected components and inform the customer as soon as they detect anomalies. 
• Via Expert Assistance, Hanson Cement gets immediate support in case of an unpredictable motor or converter breakdown.