Jura cement factories
| Jura cement factories | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1882 (Zementfabrik Zurlinden & Co.), founded as a subsidiary in 1997 |
| Seat |
Aarau , Switzerland
|
| Branch | Cement factory |
| Website | Jura Cement |
The Jura-Cement-Fabriken (abbreviated JCF) are a manufacturer of Portland cement from Switzerland . The company is headquartered in Aarau on Zurlindeninsel next to the Rüchlig power plant. His preserved cement factory is in Wildegg . The Jura-Cement factories were incorporated into the Jura-Holding in 1996 and founded as an independent subsidiary in 1997.
history
The company was founded in 1882 as the Zurlinden & Co cement factory in Aarau. This was organized as a general partnership. Half of it belonged to Rolf Zurlinden , and a quarter each to Daniel Schmutzinger-Oberlin and Carl Fischer . In connection with the opening of the plant in Wildegg, the company was converted into a stock corporation and renamed Jura-Cement-Fabriken Aarau and Wildegg . In 1903 the cement and lime factory Fleiner & Co was taken over and its production was shut down. In return, the production range was expanded to include hydraulic lime . In the years 1927 to 1929 the plant in Wildegg was massively expanded, but the plant in Aarau was shut down. In 1920 the company acquired the lime and stone factory in Beckenried . In 1933, JCF acquired a stake in Sand + Kies AG Alpnach and Sand + Kies AG Horw through the subsidiary and stone factory in Beckenried . These three companies were also referred to as the sea company, with Wabag Kies AG Beckenried being added as the fourth company in 1969 . On January 1, 1962, JCF took over the majority of shares in Richner AG in Aarau. In 1966 the plant in Cornaux was opened, this was organized as a subsidiary as Juracime SA . The building materials dealer A. Michel SA in Freiburg was acquired by Juracime SA in 1972 . Matériaux de Construction SA followed in 1973 and Convert, Muller & Cie SA in 1974 , both of which were acquired by Juracime SA and merged to Matériaux SA Cressier at the end of 1974 . Since the subsidiaries have always had a lot of personal responsibility, it was decided to convert the company into a holding company; The Jura Holding was created from this idea in 1996.
Production plants
In addition to the cement works, JCF also owns two hydropower plants in Aarau and Wildegg.
Aarau plant
The Aarau plant was located below the chain bridge in Aarau in Scheibenschachen. It opened in 1882. The Rüchlig hydropower plant was built to cover the required energy . Initially the transmission took place via transmission belts , only later was the switch to electrical power transmission. The limestone required was obtained from its own quarry in Küttigen . The land for the quarry was bought by the master builder and co-owner Schmutzinger-Oberlin in 1881. The stones were initially transported by taxi, and from 1907 by cable car. The three shaft kilns supplied 2160 tons of Portland cement in 1883, and two more shaft kilns were built later. The shaft ovens worked on the "spring" system and the grinder was equipped with a champagne stone. After the reliability of the system was convinced in America in 1905, a rotary kiln system was built in 1906 that worked in the dry process. The first Smidth kiln was 30 meters long and had a daily capacity of 65–70 tons of clinker. In 1907 the ring kilns were shut down after the rotary kiln had worked in. The rotary kiln using the dry process did not last long in Aarau, because new kilns that worked using the wet process were built as early as 1911 and 1912. For the wet process, two Smidth wet racks were installed, which were put into operation in 1911 and 1912. These ovens were 50 meters long and had a daily output of 140 tons of clinker each. A mud mill had to be built for this. The old rotary kilns were relocated from Aarau to Wildegg. The Aarau plant was shut down in 1929 and then demolished. Initially, the coal and cement were transported between the plant and the Gais freight yard by horse and cart . Since this path led through the middle of the city, this condition was unsatisfactory. Therefore, it was bought in 1891 Torfeld country so that there is a loading station with railway siding was built. The loading station was connected to the plant by a cable car. The headquarters remained in Aarau, which was replaced by a new building between 1960 and 1962 and has also been the headquarters of today's Jura-Holding since 1966/67.
Wildegg plant
The plant in Wildegg went into operation in September 1890. As with the Aarau plant, a hydropower plant was built to generate energy. The first reinforced concrete bridge in Switzerland was built over the headwater canal of the Wildegg power plant. The bridge was demolished in 1983, but was previously examined by EMPA . Initially four shaft furnaces were built that worked according to the «Kavalesky» system. There were also six grinders, which were equipped with champagne stones. The shaft furnaces were replaced by a ring furnace as early as 1893–1895. Here, too, a rotary kiln was installed in 1907, which worked in the dry process. In 1912 the dry process ovens were taken over by Aarau and a new oven was built. This enabled the old ring furnace to be taken out of operation in 1912. Between 1927 and 1929 the Wildegg plant was also converted to the wet process and fundamentally rebuilt. The first Unax furnace was built here in 1929 . It was also a Smidth rotary kiln, which was additionally equipped with a grate preheater, this worked in the semi-dry process and is also called Lepol kiln . This kiln was 84 meters long and had a guaranteed daily output of 270 tons of clinker (24 hour operation). When it was built, it was the largest cement kiln in Switzerland. During the Second World War , attempts were made to burn the cement with electrical energy. This type of burning remained in the experimental stage and was discontinued due to the inefficiency after the normalization of the raw material supply. The coal supply bottlenecks ultimately throttled the plant to 30% of its total capacity (300,000 instead of 1 million tons of annual output). The Unax furnace 2 was put into operation in 1946/47, the Unax furnace 3 in 1954. The old rotary furnaces in the wet process were shut down from 1973 to 1975 and broken down in 1980/81. The ovens were initially fired with coal. The furnaces were converted to heavy fuel oil between 1857 and 1958. However, this conversion was reversed between 1977 and 1981, so that today coal is again used as the main energy source for the burning process.
The first two quarries are in Auenstein and Veltheim . The stones were initially transported by cable car. In 1954 the Jakobsberg quarry in the Auenstein community was opened. In 1968 the Oberegg quarry was opened, which was operated together with the Holderbank cement factory. A mobile crushing plant with a walking mechanism was used here so that the broken limestone could be removed on covered conveyor belts. In 1975 a joint mining permit for the Hard quarry was obtained in the municipality of Thalheim . The mining permit for the Hard quarry is valid until 2070. The two last quarries were decided upon by the actually competing cement factories as a result of the emerging shortage of good raw materials. It was also the trigger for the construction of the cement plant in Cornaux, as an increase in capacity at the Wildegg plant would have led to foreseeable bottlenecks in the material supply.
Cornaux plant
Realizing that the Wildegg plant could not be expanded at will and that the distribution on the market with two plants would be better, the idea arose to build a second cement plant in the area of Lake Biel and Lake Neuchâtel. The board of directors decided on 7./8. November 1960 to implement this idea. As a result, Juracime SA (JC) was founded in Cornaux on December 21, 1961. The foundation stone for the plant was laid on June 11, 1964 and the plant was put into operation in the spring of 1966. The plant consisted of a rotary kiln from the Lepol system with an upstream raw meal mill and a downstream cement mill. The plant had a capacity of 275,000 tons when it was built. The rotary kiln could be fired with either heavy oil, gas or coal. After the capital increase to 15 million francs, JCF held 80% and Société Suisse de Ciment Portland SA in Neuchâtel 20% of the shares. A limestone quarry above the village of Cornaux and a marl quarry in the plain southwest of Cornaux were built for the plant.
Rüchlig power plant (Aarau)
The Rüchlig Aare power plant was built between 1882 and 1883. It is located in the left, northern arm of the Aare near Zurlindeninsel, while the weir is in the right, southern arm. The Zurlindeninsel is a semi-natural island, with the northern arm completely silted up when the power plant was built. On the city prospectus of HU Fisch from 1671 an island could still be seen at the place. In a first concession, the Zurlinden & Co. cement factory was granted 102 HP of water. This was later increased to 155 hp through improvements to the intake structure , but the factory initially received no permission to build a weir in the Aare.
The Jura-Cement-Werke bought the Aare island from the local community of Aarau in 1902. The power plant was then expanded. For this purpose, the lower and upper water channels were deepened and an inlet with tentacles and an inlet sluice was created. Two additional Francis turbines were installed in addition to the existing Jonval turbine , which gave their power mechanically to the cement factory via a transmission . This increased the usable amount of water to 27 m³ / s. The possibility of an extension has already been taken into account.
On March 1, 1907, the JCF applied for a concession to use the slope to Biberstein . This expansion included a weir over the entire width of the Aare, which was now also supported by the government. The permit was granted on April 12, 1912 and at the same time the correction of the Aare in the Rütlig area was decided. This river correction took place between 1912 and 1916. An old, now cut-off river course was used to extend the underwater canal of the power plant, which increased the usable gradient.
However, the weir could not be built due to water disputes. Between 1910 and 1916 all turbines were replaced. The three new Francis turbines continued to drive a transmission which, in addition to the cement mills, also drove two two- phase alternating current generators. The following ten years were marked by a water dispute, in addition to JCF, Motor AG and SBB also applied for water rights in the area of the Rüchlig power plant. The electricity works of the city of Aarau were planning a power station on the right side of the Aare, but was rejected by the government. The dispute ended in favor of the existing power plant, which on September 14, 1926 received approval to expand to 260 m³ / s, albeit with various conditions.
In January 1927 the construction of the weir and the expansion of the works canal began. In addition to the three existing Francis turbines, two propeller turbines were installed in the machine hall. These were directly coupled to three-phase alternating current generators, and the two two-phase generators were also replaced by three-phase generators.
After the third expansion phase, the power plant used 150 m³ / s. The energy generated was used for the self-supply of the cement factory, which was now concentrated in Wildegg. But energy was also given to Chocolat Frey , which had lost its own power plant due to the expansion of the JCF power plant, and to the city of Aarau's electricity works.
The fourth expansion phase was implemented in 1950/51. A Kaplan turbine was installed and the two footbridges over the headwater canal and the Aare were built. The fifth expansion phase took place between 1960 and 1963. The underwater channel was dredged and widened. In addition, the three Francis turbines from the 1910s were replaced by three bulb turbines. The maximum usable amount of water rose to 346 m³ / s, which enables an average production of 55 million kWh per year.
The power plant was taken over by Axpo in 2011 and renewed in the following years. The three bulb turbines have a maximum output of 11 MW and can generate 64 million kWh in average years.
Wildegg power plant
When it opened, the power plant had two Jonval turbines and a usage permit of 175.55 ps. The power plant was given up in 1945 and the water rights were assigned to the Rupperswil-Auenstein power plant , which is operated by the NOK and the SBB. Replacement energy was supplied by this power plant until the concession expired.
Operating figures
Operating figures for the Aarau / Wildegg plant
| year | Annual production tons / cement |
Employees | Energy consumption coal kg / t cement |
Electrical energy kWh / t cement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 34,000 | 620 | 212 | 160 |
| 1912 | 78,000 | 850 | 192 | 150 |
| 1950 | 164,000 | 240 | 189 | 120 |
| 1973 | 575,000 | 260 | 163 ( SKE ) | 92 |
| 1975 | 360,000 | 170 | 150 ( SKE ) | 97 |
| 1980 | 330,000 | 140 | 136 ( SKE ) | 101 |
| 1985 | 500,000 | 130 | 120 ( SKE ) | 105 |
Subsidiaries
In 1982 JCF had the following subsidiaries:
- Juracime SA Cornaux
The four following companies are referred to as sea companies and are under one management:
- Sand + Kies AG Lucerne
- Transportbeton AG Lucerne
- Sand + Kies AG Alpnach
- Wabag Kies AG Beckenried
JCF owns the following building material suppliers:
- Richner AG Aarau
- A. Michel SA Friborg
- Matériaux SA Cressier (NE)
literature
- One hundred years of Jura-Cement-Fabriken Aarau - Wildegg 1882–1982 . Published by Jura-Cement-Fabriken, 1982.
Individual evidence
- ^ Jura-Cement-Fabriken AG. In: Handelsregsiter Kanton Aargau. Retrieved July 12, 2020 .
- ↑ Othmar Birkner: Aarau . In: Inventory of the newer Swiss architecture (INSA) . tape 1 , 1984, Rüchlig. Cement factory, S. 156 , doi : 10.5169 / SEALS-1273 .
- ↑ Hans Ulrich Fisch II: View of the city of Aarau from the southeast from 1671. In: Wikimedia Commons. 1671, Retrieved June 30, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c d e Hugo Marfurt: The «Rüchlig» power plant of the Jura-Cement-Farbiken Aarau . 1964, p. 36-48 , doi : 10.5169 / SEALS-559004 .
- ^ Aarau, power station of the Jura-Cement-Factories . In: Schweizerischer Wasserwirtschaftsverband (Ed.): Guide through the Swiss water management . tape 1 . Zurich 1926, p. 117-118 .
- ↑ Federal Office for Water Management (Ed.): Statistics of hydropower plants in Switzerland . 1st January 1973.
- ↑ Axpo (ed.): Hydraulic power plant Rüchlig . Factsheet. November 2016 ( axpo.com [PDF]).
- ↑ 100 years of JCF, page 98
- ↑ Incl. Rüchlig power plant and Riepel gypsum break
- ↑ Forecast 1982
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