Meticulous planning and over 22,000 hours of work helped Tarmac’s Tunstead cement team complete its largest engineering project since operations began at the site in 2004.
The project involved the replacement of two sections of the complex grinding mill which turns the cement ‘clinker’ into the more familiar cement powder. The task was safely completed by the team of Tarmac employees supported by 100 contractors.
A gear box, weighing over 38,000kg or the equivalent of 20 average cars, was replaced. At the same time, the team changed a 21,000kg ‘girth gear’ which is part of the mechanism which turns the mill. Running the projects simultaneously enabled the site to be back up and running within 30 days, preventing any disruption to the customers Tarmac Tunstead supplies with cement right around the country.
Tarmac’s engineering and operations manager Paul O’Nyons, whose role was to support this large-scale operation, said: “This is the largest and most challenging engineering project we have taken on at Tunstead Cement and throughout we have had safety as our number one priority. After nine months of planning and 30 days of work on site (equating to 22,000 hours), the project was completed safely, on budget and on schedule.
“It was a complete team effort from start to finish, involving maintenance, production and logistics teams, ensuring minimal disruption to operations and careful management of cement stocks during the shutdown period.”
Mike Eberlin, managing director, Cement & Lime, Tarmac added: “Carrying out these two projects alongside each other was a unique challenge, and I would like to congratulate and thank the team at Tunstead for the professional and exemplary way in which they have worked. I am delighted this was achieved safely, first of all and, secondly, that supply to customers was not affected in any way, due to the excellent management of our external stocks to cover the 30-day shutdown.”
Some key members of the project team in front of the mill: left to right – Ian Smith, Royston Lomas, Charlie Hodgson, Dan Beech, Lee Morris, Jonathan Douglas