Usage of rotary kiln tyre and roller

The purpose of tyres (often called riding rings) and rollers is to support the kiln and allow it to rotate with minimal friction. Rotary kilns are among the largest items of permanently moving industrial machinery, the largest examples weighing in their fully-loaded form several thousand tonnes. Despite the challenges of their size and their high temperature, the best examples of rotary kiln rotate on their rollers almost frictionlessly, the power supplied by the drive being almost entirely in order to oppose the eccentric load of the contents of the kiln. On cutting the power to a kiln, the kiln will “roll back” and unless a brake is applied, will continue to swing like a pendulum for ten or fifteen minutes before coming to a standstill. This finely-tuned mechanical condition requires sophisticated design of the kiln’s supports.