polytrack® - the clinker cooler for cement industry and cement plants

The polytrack^® is the reliable clinker cooler of thyssenkrupp. The focal point of our quest for continuous innovation and optimization of the polytrack^® reflects our commitment to meet the demands of the cement industry. With the polytrack^®, thyssenkrupp offers a robust machine that keeps delivering high performance under challenging process conditions not only today, but for years to come.

The new generation of polytrack^® stands for reliability and experience

The German-engineered solution is based on experience and a close communication with our customers. The design of the polytrack^® was born out of more than 100 years of experience building equipment for the cement industry and complete cement plants all over the world. The concept first brought to the market 18 years ago and proven within over 130 installations has been updated to keep up with the ever more stringent demands on equipment performance and reliability, and to represent the state of the art in clinker cooling.

polytrack^® - advantages at a glance:

High availability and robustness for continuous operation under the most demanding process conditions
Modular and flexible design for fast and uncomplicated conversion projects
High thermal efficiency and low power consumption for low operating costs
Low wear, maintenance friendly design for low, easy maintenance
Attractive investment cost
No clinker spillage and no requirement for undergrate spillage system

Operation principle of the clinker cooler

Stationary, low-wear aeration grate

The air is distributed to the material bed via static aeration units located between the transport tracks. Since the aeration plates do not move and the conveying elements are sealed with a continuous sealing from the adjacent aeration floor, there is virtually no clinker spillage and no need for an undergrate spillage conveying system. The plates are permanently covered with a stationary layer of cold clinker, which provides autogenous wear protection, leading to a long operating lifetime of the aeration floor, guaranteed at at least five years. The first ever installed polytrack^® only replaced the aeration elements after 10 years+, not due to wear but to upgrade to the newest energy saving design.

Roll crusher

Roll crushers are the low wear, low power consumption, high performance crushing solution for coolers of every size. The efficient polytrack^® roll crusher can be installed at the cooler discharge as end crusher, or as cooled intermediate crusher, in order to:

increase the temperature of the midair tapping for higher efficiency of WHR applications, and
minimize the clinker end temperature to meet the demands of the downstream VRM milling equipment

The crusher typically has three or four rolls, depending on the cooler size. The direction of rotation of the rolls can be reversed, in order to deal with large lumps of material or fragments of kiln coating and protect the crushing rings from damage.

Clinker cooler services by thyssenkrupp

thyssenkrupp offers a 360° service. Our teams of experts are at our customers’ side from the early stages of the project, through the erection and commissioning phases and beyond. The cooler is a vital component of the clinker production line and its performance is interdependent with that of the kiln. Our experts have extensive experience in all aspects of the clinker production process and help to maximize the output and availability of the existing clinker cooler equipment. We also offer training to enable the operators in the safe and efficient use of the cooler.

The polytrack^® - new innovative design features to meet growing performance demands

The polytrack^® has been optimized to answer the market demand for maximized availability, reduced maintenance and fast conversions with minimum production downtime:

New aeration elements with reduced pressure drop for uniform aeration with lower power consumption (1kWh/t clinker less!). Due to the reduced air outlet velocities the wear of the elements is minimized. For new plants, the lower pressure drop also means that smaller aeration fans can be used, reducing the initial invest cost
New, simplified, spillage free continuous sealing
New maintenance-friendlier design of the bearings and subgrate structure to shorten installation times, facilitate inspection and maintenance. The bearings are held together only by two bolts that can be easily removed.
The simplified substructure allows for an increased local manufacturing scope for lower overall costs

The central feature of the polytrack^® cooler is the static, horizontal aeration floor and the separate clinker conveying system by means of tracks installed above it. This key design element leads to several advantages.

It is at the core of the polytrack^®’s superior cooling performance, high thermal efficiency and availability, unbeatable robustness and equipment durability.

The benefits of the new generation clinker cooler - the polytrack^®

The polytrack^® stands for a high availability, unbeatable robustness and equipment durability. The high number of installed coolers, and the long-term trust invested into us by our customers speak for our commitment to excellence. All components in contact with clinker receive a five years operating life guarantee.

The modules are 4.8 m or 7.2 m long and available in widths of 1.5 m, 2.0 m and 2.5 m. With small module dimension steps – of 0.5 m over the width and only 2.4 m over the length – it is possible to design coolers to suit any plant and fit in pre-existing housings. The modules can be preassembled in the manufacturing shop for fast installation times with minimum downtime for the replacement of existing coolers. Moreover, the horizontal design results in a low construction height, reducing civil costs for new installations and allowing for easy integration into any existing clinker production line. Combined with the highly flexible modular construction with modules of different sizes, this makes the polytrack^® the ideal solution for fast cooler replacement projects.

In the direction of conveyance of the clinker, transport tracks move to and fro above the static aeration floor. Each row of transport tracks spans the entire length of the cooler. To convey the clinker bed, the transport tracks are moved forward together, and are then individually moved back.

By varying the transport stroke length and frequency, the conveying speed of the clinker bed, and thus the clinker throughput can be optimally controlled. The stroke length and frequency can be adjusted individually for each track. This allows to adjust the bed depth profile over the width of the cooler, to deal with the separation of fine and coarse clinker caused by the rotation of the kiln. In turn, this leads to homogeneous cooling results and helps prevent challenging phenomena like the red river, a stream of hot fluidized very fine clinker, that plagues traditional grate coolers.

The minimal wear that might be experienced by the transport tracks over time has no influence whatsoever on the aeration efficiency of the cooler, leading to an unabatingly high thermal performance of the machine. The lifetime guarantee for the conveying elements is five years.

Plant owners demand clinker coolers that are:

high-performance
compact
low-wear
flexible in use
favourably-priced
reliable in operation and
easy to maintain.

This highly complex list of requirements is exactly fulfilled by the advantages of the polytrack^®– the new generation clinker cooler made by thyssenkrupp. Its numerous innovative process and design elements make polytrack^® a future-oriented mechanical and process technological solution.

Moreover, the polytrack^® tolerates fluctuations in the kiln process; its flexible and high-performance material transportation system copes with even the most difficult operating conditions.