After energy, cement is one of the industries with the fastest growth rate in Eastern Africa, William Duchatelle, pricing and revenue management coordinator for automotive and industrial lubricants at Total Lubricants, told LubesnGreases. Total has substantial refining, chemicals and petroleum products marketing operations in the region.

Rough Conditions

Cement production facilities present one of the most challenging environments for lubricants and grease manufacturers. Greases must be able to withstand both heavy and shock loads, vibration, very high operating temperatures generated by cement kilns, exposure to all weather conditions and the continuous presence of dust.

This high-value, capital-intensive equipment includes ball mills to crush the clinker that becomes cement powder, bucket elevators and conveyor systems to transport materials, machinery gearboxes, extraction machinery and heavy off-road vehicles at quarry sites.

There are many components of cement industry equipment and machinery that require lubrication and greasing to function optimally, such as the gearbox main drives, grinding roller bearings, classifier rotor shaft bearings and hydraulic tensioning systems, said Jan Schmidt, area manager for Africa at Gebr Pfeiffer. Gebr Pfeiffer specializes in the planning, design and manufacture of equipment for grinding cement raw materials and the clinker formed as part of the production process.

Cement and clinker plants in East Africa often operate in harsh environments that make scheduled lubrication a top priority, Schmidt told LubesnGreases. The tough operating conditions … include dusty environments, abrasive materials, extreme cement processing temperatures, extremely high pressure forces in core equipment systems and also plasticity and dew point issues, said Schmidt. Although cement and clinker plants operate in a wide environmental temperature range, there are still narrow operation parameters for lubrication systems.

Original equipment manufacturers for the cement industry approve lubricant and grease standards for cement plant builders, such as Gerb Pfeiffer. A respective specifications list is synchronized with our sub-suppliers for various equipment parts such as gearboxes and we provide the first lubricant filling, said Schmidt. OEMs also adhere to international lubricant and grease standards for their equipment and machinery, depending on the products sub-system. DIN 51519, DIN 51502 and DIN 51818 are a few international lubricant and grease standards OEMs recommend for their cement and clinker processing equipment.

However, Schmidt cautioned, We do recommend lubricants and greases to users of our cement and clinker equipment and machinery, but we cannot be liable, neither can we guarantee for the products on our consumables list should a customer fail to use the lubricants and greases approved by us.

Leading Suppliers

Total is one of the leading lubricant and grease suppliers across East Africa, with market share in Kenya alone of 39.7 percent in 2016. The company has more than 15 blending plants in Africa and a grease manufacturing plant in South Africa.

In June 2017, Total signed an agreement to be the exclusive distributor of open gear greases made by Lubrilog, a French company that specializes in the development and manufacture of lubricants for the mining and cement industries. The companys products are used in equipment installed at limestone quarries, kilns, cement grinders and in packaging machinery, power transmission, logistics and processing equipment.

Open-gear applications include girth gears, the very large open wheels that rotate the grinding mill and kiln in cement plants. These gears have to operate under immense loads. Other cement industry lube suppliers in the region include Fuchs Petrolub SE with its wide range of cement-specific products, such as Ceplattyn and Gearmaster, and ExxonMobils Dynagear range.

High Energy

One of the major challenges faced by cement manufacturers in Africa is the cost of electricity. This is made worse by the variable quality and reliability of electricity supply in in the region, forcing cement producers in some instances to use more expensive power generation options, such as imported coal as in the case of Ethiopia, which heavily subsidizes its power tariff.

Energy consumption is a major concern for the cement industry, and we have on offer lubricants and greases to improve energy efficiency, said Totals Duchatelle. An operators lubricant choices can play a substantial role in keeping costs low and helping the plant remain profitable in a competitive market. For example, Totals grease for ball mills can achieve savings of 5 percent on a cement plants energy consumption, Duchatellle claimed.

Long-Term Contact

Duchatelle concluded that lubricant suppliers should approach cement plants with a long-term view that calls for technical support in lubricant choices, plant inspection and assistance with changing customer trends, which, he said, is more challenging than switching the lubricants of an off-road fleet. This requires a local presence with dedicated technical teams to ensure field support.

However, the anticipated uptake of lubricants by the cement industry in East Africa could be impacted by its response to challenges such as excess capacity, which could push both pricing and production downward, high distribution costs due to high fuel prices and the poor condition of roads in the region, as well as the influx of cheap imports from Asia could affect the volume of lubricants consumed by cement and clinker plants.