A cement silo is used for any concrete production operation as it allows the product to be stored, purchased and distributed in bulk. Fitted beneath silos, various types of butterfly or other rotary valves are used to control the flow of cement into trucks or other transport devices.
One particular cement processing plant needed a replacement for their main silo off loading valves which fill cement trucks used by the company to deliver their product.
A custom valve manufacturer was called in to use their engineering and fabrication expertise to develop a custom valve that would last. The result was a new rotary valve that uses a much hardier wear plate, and the rotor and body are carefully machined with only a 2/100ths of an inch gap between them.
The new, custom designed valve needed an actuator that would be equally reliable. The Kinetrol vane actuator with a spring return was chosen. With only one moving part and no complex linkage to wear out, it serves for a long time. The combination of valve and actuator is expected to last many thousands of operations with no maintenance.