Sittingbourne

Location:

Clinker manufacture operational: 1858-11/1970

Approximate total clinker production: 6.9 million tonnes

Raw materials:

Ownership:

Also known as Smeed & Dean’s and Murston Works. Smeed, Dean and Co. were a horizontally-integrated company producing cement, lime, bricks, fruit and jam. The company was the largest producer of London Stock bricks, and the brick plant at Sittingbourne, at one time Britain’s largest, continues in business today. Currently owned by Weinerberger, it is still called Smeed Dean Plant. The stock brick process used both clay and chalk, and Portland cement making was started as a sideline in 1858, with wet process bottle kilns. By 1876 there were eight of these, making around 220 t/week. Another 12 had been added by 1898, giving a total capacity of 550 t/week. In 1902, the bottle kilns were replaced with a block of twenty chamber kilns, giving Davis’ 1907 capacity of 600 t/week. After this, rapid expansion took place, with a total 50 chamber kilns in place by 1914. These remained in operation until the rotary kilns were installed. The original rotary coolers (dimensions unknown) were replaced with recycled Wouldham (Essex) kilns in 1940 and 1948. The plant never had a rail link, and used the increasingly silted Milton creek for water transport originally. Available reserves were nearly exhausted by 1970 and the plant was one of those earmarked for replacement by Northfleet. The cement plant site was cleared in 1973 and redeveloped. The clay pits are flooded, and the chalk quarries are waste land.

Power supply

The original plant was entirely direct-driven by steam engine, and this continued until the re-build in 1926, when the plant was largely electrified (other than the chalk quarry washmills, still driven by steam), using power from a 2 MW turbo-generator. From 1946, grid power was used, and the chalk quarry was electrified.

Rawmills

There were two washmills and two screeners at the first chalk quarry producing chalk slurry that was pumped by 3.1 km pipeline to the plant. A similar but larger system was subsequently installed in the second quarry. Chalk slurry was stored at the plant site in the original slurry backs, and it was combined with clay in a further washmill and screener.

Two rotary kilns were installed.

Kiln A1

Supplier: FLS
Operated: 5/1926-30/11/1970
Process: Wet
Location: Hot end 591909,164746: Cold end 591956,164796: entirely enclosed.
Dimensions, metric:

Rotation (viewed from firing end): ?
Slope: 1/25 (2.292°)
Speed: ?
Drive: ?
Kiln profile:

Cooler: rotary 59’6”× 6’3½” (metric 18.14 × 1.918) beneath kiln: second-hand (ex Wouldham B-series kiln), installed 1940: previously concentric? or early Unax? At the same time, the kiln nose was changed to a cone, complete with tyre, presumably by Vickers Armstrong.
Cooler profile: 0×2235: 1168×2235: 1778×1918: 18136×1918: Tyres at 3048, 13919
Fuel: Coal
Coal mill: semi-indirect: ball mill
Exhaust: initially direct to stack: ID fans were installed in 1936, and around 1964, two parallel Unit Precipitators were installed after the fan.
Typical Output: 1925-1936 140 t/d: 1936-1950 165 t/d: 1950-1970 232 t/d
Typical Heat Consumption: 1925-1936 8.28 MJ/kg: 1936-1950 7.85 MJ/kg: 1950-1970 7.40 MJ/kg


Kiln A2

Operated: 9/1927 to 30/11/1970
Location: Hot end 591917,164738: Cold end 591964,164789: entirely enclosed.
Cooler: as Kiln A1 - original replaced in 1948.
Typical Output: 1927-1936 140 t/d: 1936-1950 159 t/d: 1950-1970 227 t/d
Typical Heat Consumption: 1927-1936 8.16 MJ/kg: 1936-1950 7.87 MJ/kg: 1950-1970 7.44 MJ/kg
Identical in all other respects to A1



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