As a very basic raw material for social and economic development, cement will also become one of the main raw materials used in the construction industry in the future, and its demand is expected to remain highly growing for a long time to come. As a traditional process-oriented manufacturing industry, the cement industry has great opportunities for development, but also faces a series of hazards in the production process that deserve attention.

Project overview

A cement company belonging to Sinoma Group was named "Jiangxi's Leading Enterprise of the Year 2021". In the production and processing process of this cement plant, due to the relatively complex production environment, it is easy to face potential hazards during the production and processing process, so it is more important to take timely safety precautions and develop a series of safety management mechanisms The need to take timely safety precautions and develop a series of safety management mechanisms is essential to ensure that cement plant production develops well and quickly, otherwise serious safety accidents can directly affect the economic and social benefits of the enterprise.

The pain points and needs of cement plants

01 Difficulty in ensuring personnel safety

• Calcined clinker undergoes high temperatures of over 1400℃ during cement production and processing, with any material gases spilling out reaching several hundred degrees.
• The tendency for dust to explode in cement plants.
• Electrical accidents as one of the most typical injuries in cement plants, where electric shock or unintentional irregularities can cause fires.
• Various types of noise occur during production, with high aerodynamic noise from equipment such as centrifugal fans and Roots fans. 

Operating in such an environment, in the event of an accident, the active call for help by personnel can easily be overlooked in a noisy environment, and management personnel are unable to alert the corresponding area and personnel and implement emergency rescue in a timely manner, making it difficult to ensure the safety of both personnel and equipment.

02 Unclear distribution of personnel

• Plant operations are complicated, and it is difficult to locate the personnel in each position, the information is unknown, and the management cannot grasp the situation on site, which is not conducive to the dynamic scheduling and allocation of personnel by the management.

03 Low quality and efficiency of inspection, difficult to ensure safety

• Mechanical personnel inspection, inspection process is not perfect, inspection workload is large, resulting in low efficiency and quality.
• The high temperature, noise and dust environment is dangerous for the inspection personnel.

Difficulties in the management of key areas

• Key and dangerous areas need to be managed with emphasis. At present, it is not possible to warn personnel entering dangerous areas in time, and personnel cannot effectively call for help when they encounter unexpected events.

UWB-based safety solutions

To solve the above problems and ensure safe and high quality production at the cement plant. The group has adopted Woxu Wireless' 5G + UWB fusion positioning solution. The interconnection of data and information from different production elements connects the complete production line, breaking down data silos and efficiently solving safety and other challenges in production management. By deploying UWB positioning anchors in all areas of production and warehouses, and allowing each employee to wear a UWB positioning tag, the positioning anchor collects data from the tag when the employee is walking around the factory and transmits it to the LS1000 positioning engine via wired Ethernet for data analysis and processing, thus obtaining accurate and continuous information on the employee's location.  

01Precise location information acquisition

The system platform can accurately obtain the location information and status of employees wearing the location bracelet tags. In addition, managers can also quickly find the location of personnel in the background based on their names and numbers, enabling dynamic scheduling and allocation of personnel and saving manpower costs.

02 Vital signs data monitoring

Employees wear UT-224 intelligent positioning bracelet, which contains vital signs information such as heart rate, blood oxygen, pedometer and SOS active alarm button, when personnel perceive their own danger, timely departure of SOS alarm, the background personnel can receive timely distress information to rescue.

03 Integration of digital twin platform, 3D visualisation management

Based on Web 3D technology, the plant area is digitally modelled to visually display the precise location, basic information and status of personnel in each area of the plant. The integration of 3D, video surveillance and the digital twin platform enables dynamic monitoring of the safety status of personnel working on site in a comprehensive manner.

04 Intelligent inspection to improve inspection quality and efficiency

Intelligent safety inspection, rational planning of inspection processes and routes, improved inspection quality and safety quality, reduced inspection workload, saved inspection resources and reduced operating costs.

05 Multi-dimensional warning and control

Electronic fences are set up in key areas and dangerous areas, and the platform sends alerts to remind people to leave the relevant areas when they enter the dangerous areas without authority.

Anchor deployment

People-oriented has long been the principle and basic concept that must be strictly followed in the safety production process of cement plants. Striving for zero accidents has also become an important goal in the production and operation of cement companies and is constantly gaining popularity. In the context of the new economic norm, efforts should be made to take into account a series of risk factors faced by production, to make practical solutions to safety hazards and to consider safety as the basis for survival and development, in order to truly achieve a win-win situation for both economic and social benefits of cement enterprises.

This cement plant project, as Sinoma's first large-scale UWB positioning project for cement plants, has achieved the integration and linkage of UWB, monitoring and digital twin platform, setting a positive benchmark in the industry and further enhancing the brand image.