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Description: Control of Portland Cement Quality provides a practical approach to the application of statistical methods for quality control in cement manufacturing. A key element of the book is the concept of functional quality control, which sets the stage for a quality program that not only recognizes the relevance of product specifications and quality requirements for clinker and cement, but also performance characteristics required in the marketplace. Moore's use of both real and simulated examples representing actual plant conditions provides the reader with specific guidance and direction.
The author's thorough description of statistical methods along with clear, real-world examples from cement plant operations makes this an extremely useful book to anyone responsible for making uniformly high-quality cement. It is an important reference for plant managers, and corporate and plant quality department personnel. It will also be of interest to cement users and specifiers, and the academic community.
Preface
An objective of process control is continual improvement. The success of Dr. W. Edwards Deming with statistical process control, toward that end, is legendary history. This book emphasizes that approach. But it is not a statistics book--you can find dozens of those on the library shelf. It is a book on controlling quality in portland cement. Statistical process control is a means to an end. It requires a knowledge of how data behave, and how to extract all the information from this principle: Persistent attempts at oversimplification of the subject is not nearly as productive as equivalent effort directed toward a sound understanding of the fundamentals. That principle is applied in the last chapter on instrumentation as well as to those on statistics.
A key feature of this book is that it uses examples of data taken from plant records, the results of tests with which most readers work on a daily basis. Computer simulations are also used where they can demonstrate special characteristics of data more efficiently. Those cases are properly identified. Frequently all the information we have on a problem, or a special situation, is contained in the data. The more information we can extract from the data, the better we can manage the problem.
A brief description of the manufacturing process and the raw materials is also included -- simply as an outline for those already familiar with it, and who speak the language of the cement plant laboratory. The essential elements of a quality control program are identified and described.
There are choices of chemical control parameters. All of those in common use today are described, and the relationship between the control parameters and the compound composition is derived. Methods of designing a four-component mix to meet selected chemical conditions are demonstrated.
Then instrumentation is described. X-ray instruments for chemical analysis have dominated both the laboratory and on-stream process control for decades. A replacement for process control using neutron activation analysis has emerged in the past twenty years, and has demonstrated its effectiveness. Laboratory instruments using flame emission and atomic absorption spectrometry are reviewed.
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