Cement Manufacturing
Cement Plant Operations
Measurement Technologies and Process Automation
Instrumentation and control in a cement plant, from the sensor in the duct to the optimiser above the DCS.
- Duration
- 5 days
- Contact hours
- 30
- Level
- Intermediate
- Fee from
- On enquiry
Overview
A control system is only as good as what it is measuring, and cement measurement is difficult: hot, dusty, abrasive and corrosive. This week starts with the instruments, what each measures, how it fails and what maintenance it needs, then builds up through control loops and their tuning to the supervisory and expert control layers. Online analysis gets its own session because it changes how a plant is controlled when it works and misleads badly when it drifts.
Who should attend
Instrumentation and control engineers and technicians, process engineers working with control systems, automation project engineers, and production staff who rely on the readings.
What you will be able to do
- Select instruments suited to cement plant conditions.
- Recognise instrument failure and drift from the process data.
- Tune a control loop and know when tuning is not the problem.
- Evaluate supervisory and expert control systems.
- Use online analysis correctly, including its calibration burden.
How it is taught
Short input, then work, across 5 days of roughly 6 teaching hours each. Exercises run on situations delegates bring rather than on a case study written for a different organisation. Cohorts are capped so that everybody is asked something.
Available as classroom, live online, in house.
Programme outline
Day 1
Instruments
- Temperature, pressure and flow in hot dusty service
- Level, weight and belt weighers
- Gas analysis and its sampling problems
Day 2
Reliability
- Failure modes and drift
- Calibration routines
- Recognising a bad reading from the process
Day 3
Control
- Loop structure and tuning
- Cascade, ratio and feedforward
- Interlocks and safety functions
Day 4
Above the loops
- Supervisory and model based control
- Expert systems for kiln and mill
- What these systems need to succeed
Day 5
Online analysis
- Cross belt analysers
- Calibration and validation burden
- Using analyser data in control
What you leave with
- An instrumentation review for one section.
- A loop tuning exercise on a real loop.
- A control system improvement proposal.
Dates and fees
| Dates | Location | Format | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 to 27 November 2026 | Cape Town, South Africa | Classroom | R15,000 |
| 30 November 2026 to 4 December 2026 | Nairobi, Kenya | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 7 to 11 December 2026 | Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 14 to 18 December 2026 | Live online | Live online | US$995 |
Fees are per delegate and cover tuition, all programme materials and the certificate. Travel, accommodation and visas are arranged by the delegate. Registration closes two weeks before a programme starts.
Certificate
A GATI certificate recording what was attended, issued after the programme has run and attendance has been taken. Attending at least 80 per cent of the days earns a certificate of completion; attending less earns a certificate of attendance stating exactly what was attended. Every certificate carries a code that anybody can check against GATI's own record.
It records participation. and GATI does not claim one it does not hold.