Kiln, Furnace & Refractory Removal

Talk to us about your kiln outage

Two fields and you are done. We usually call back the same business day.

Kiln, Furnace and Refractory Removal

Refractory out fast, safely, and without putting people under an arch that has just come off temperature. Remote machines start earlier in the cool down and break harder than any crew with hand tools.

Rotary kiln, furnace, boiler and incinerator refractory strip out
Remote machines working under unstable arches and crowns
Earlier start in the cool down, shorter outage
Brick, castable and monolithic lining removal
Debris out and area handed to your refractory installer clean

Call 02 8015 6345 and speak to someone who has run these jobs.

The lining is the outage. Everything else waits for it

On a kiln or furnace outage, refractory removal usually sits right at the front of the critical path. The relining contractor cannot start until the old lining is out and the shell is clean, and every hour lost at the strip out end is an hour the plant is not making product.

The traditional method is a crew inside with hand tools, waiting for the temperature to drop far enough for people to work, then chipping away under whatever is still hanging off the crown. It is slow, it is hot, and it is one of the more dangerous jobs in industrial maintenance.

Remote machines change both halves of that equation. They can be tracked in while conditions are still marginal for people, and they break out brick and castable at a rate hand tools cannot approach. The operator stands outside the shell or well back inside it with a control box, which is exactly where you want a person to be when a section of arch decides to let go.

What we strip

Rotary cement and lime kiln linings, brick and castable
Furnace, ladle and vessel refractory
Boiler and incinerator linings
Cyclone, riser duct and cooler refractory
Monolithic and gunned castable removal
Anchors and residual material cleaned back to shell
Kiln shell preparation ready for the reline crew

Why the remote machine wins here

Two reasons: distance and force. Distance, because nobody is standing under the section being broken out, which is the single biggest risk in refractory removal. Force, because a compact remote machine with a hydraulic hammer removes brick and dense castable at a pace that hand crews and light tools simply cannot match.

The machines are electric, so there is no diesel exhaust inside a confined shell to extract, and they stabilise on outriggers so the energy goes into the lining instead of shaking the machine. On a kiln we can also work with the shell rotating in controlled increments where that suits the removal sequence.

Coordinating with your reline contractor

The strip out crew and the reline crew are usually two different companies with one shared deadline, and the handover between them is where outages slip. We work to the reline contractor's start time as a hard commitment, agree how clean the shell has to be before they will accept it, and get that written down before the outage starts.

Where the sequence allows, we hand over in sections so the reline crew can begin at one end while we are still working the other.

The dust, the debris and the paperwork

Refractory dust is nasty, and some older linings carry refractory ceramic fibre or other hazardous material. We treat the material as hazardous until testing says otherwise, run the extraction and respiratory controls that go with it, and dispose to a licensed facility with documentation.

Debris removal is planned as carefully as the breaking. Nothing slows a strip out like a machine working faster than the material can be carried out.

What a typical job looks like: cement kiln section reline

A cement plant has a ten day outage. A section of rotary kiln lining has to come out, the shell cleaned back to steel, and the area handed to the reline contractor by day five so they can build back before restart.

Planning four weeks out. Lining type, thickness and known problem areas confirmed with your maintenance team, access and lifting agreed.
Hazard assessment on the lining material, with sampling where the records are unclear.
Day one, as soon as the shell is safe to enter: machine tracked in, extraction and lighting set up, exclusion zone established.
Days one to three: breaking out brick and castable with the remote machine, operator clear of the working face at all times.
Continuous debris removal so the working face is never blocked, with material going straight to the disposal stream.
Day four: anchors and residual castable cleaned back, shell inspected with your team.
Day five: shell handed over clean, documented with photos, ready for the reline crew to start on schedule.

Frequently asked

How early in the cool down can you start?
Earlier than a hand crew, which is usually the whole point. The exact temperature depends on the machine and the shell, and we agree it with your maintenance team rather than guessing on the day.

Do you do the reline as well?
No, we strip and hand over clean. Refractory installation is a specialist trade and we would rather work alongside your reline contractor than pretend otherwise.

What about refractory ceramic fibre?
Treated as hazardous until testing says otherwise, with the controls, monitoring and licensed disposal that go with it.

Can you work inside the shell while it rotates?
In controlled increments, where the removal sequence calls for it and the isolation regime allows. It is planned in detail, never improvised.

How far will you travel?
Anywhere in Australia. Most kilns are not near a capital city, and the machines are built to travel.

Head office in Sydney, yard in Brisbane, crews travelling to every state and territory. Kiln, silo and vessel work is planned around your outage dates, so location is a logistics question rather than a reason to say no.

Outage on the calendar?

Send the dates and the lining detail. The earlier we plan a strip out, the shorter it gets, and the sooner your plant is back making product.

Call 02 8015 6345 or use the form at the top of this page.