What are the Types of Stainless Steel Silos

Stainless steel silos are popular worldwide thanks to their many significant advantages. Firstly, it is fast to manufacture and can efficiently meet market demands. Secondly, the silo itself is lightweight, providing greater flexibility both in the transport process and in the choice of installation locations. Furthermore, its cost is relatively low, saving a lot of money for many enterprises.

Stainless steel silo has an extremely wide range of applications, covering many industries such as agriculture, metallurgy, building materials, petroleum, chemical industry, light industry and so on. It can store various types of materials, including granular bulk materials, such as wheat, barley, sorghum, corn, rice, soybeans, etc.; powdered materials, like flour, cocoa beans, feed products, cement, gypsum, etc.; as well as liquid raw materials, such as water, oil, and vegetable oil.

Bolted Steel Silos

Bolted steel silos are steel silos that are connected and assembled with high strength bolts using electric torque spanners. This type of silo is particularly suitable for large-scale industrial production, it is easy to transport and relatively low cost. When installed on site, it has a small workload, relatively simple technical requirements, fast project progress and is not affected by seasonal factors. In addition, when dismantling is required, unlike reinforced concrete silos that need to be demolished by blasting, bolted steel silos can be easily and quickly dismantled and transferred for re-installation and use elsewhere.

Features

1. High precision: the bolted grain storage silo has international advanced equipment and technology as a guarantee to ensure its manufacturing precision.
2. High automation: the silo is capable of highly automated and mechanised operation, with high production efficiency and manpower saving.
3. Wide storage range: the capacity of a single silo can be up to 15,000 tonnes, with complete functions to meet the diversified needs of various customers.
4. Easy maintenance: the silos are made of standard, interchangeable and universal galvanised steel sheets and fittings, which makes maintenance very easy. In addition, it is easy to upgrade capacity or relocate the silo.
5. Low investment costs: Compared to reinforced concrete silos, costs can be reduced by 20-30 per cent, resulting in significant investment savings.

Spiral Steel Silos

Spiral steel silo, also known as Lipu type steel silo, is made by connecting the spiral bites of the silo wall plates through a special processing method. The silo is made of thin steel plates and weighs only as much as the weight of steel bars in a reinforced concrete silo of the same capacity, which greatly reduces costs.

Features

1. High strength: the industrial powder tank or silo wall is reinforced by vertical reinforcement and bitten by spiral beams, which is very strong and can resist well to wind, earthquake and snow.
2. Good sealing performance: the rolled edges and seam treatment of the five-layer spiral steel plate ensure good airtightness, so this industrial powder storage silo can be used for storing construction materials such as cement, gypsum, fly ash and slag, as well as liquid materials.
3. Small footprint: the minimum distance between grain storage silos can be up to 500mm, effectively saving the footprint.
4. short construction period: with advanced on-site automated construction methods, a 1000 tonne industrial powder storage silo can be built in only 5-6 days.
5. Long service life: by adopting the best combination of different thicknesses of panels for powder storage tanks, the service life of this industrial powder storage silo can be up to 25-30 years.
6. Aesthetically pleasing appearance: the silo has a conical top, which makes it difficult for dust or water to accumulate. The silo body glows with silver lines, which makes it aesthetically pleasing and easy to see.

Welded Steel Silos

Welded steel silos are made of welded steel plates and have a long service life of up to 50 years and a large storage capacity, from 5,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes of material in a single silo. They also have relatively thick silo walls.

Features

1. Low gas consumption for homogenisation and unloading system: The welded steel silo adopts the design concept of integrating gas fluidisation, gas homogenisation and gas export, i.e. the principle of one gas for multiple functions, which saves a large amount of gas source. Taking into account the long storage period of the cement and the increased packing density, high pressure air is used as the gas source. The combined electricity consumption for gas homogenisation, unloading and conveying is about 0.3 kWh per tonne of cement. If the cement is stored for a long time, the electricity consumption will increase accordingly.
2. Good storage effect: Due to the good sealing performance of the welded steel silo, the stored materials such as cement, fly ash, sand, gravel, aggregate and so on are in close air isolation, and the materials are in vacuum sealing state, which ensures that the characteristics of the materials do not change.
3. Low carbon and environmental protection: the top of the steel silo is a load-bearing dome, and each silo is equipped with a pulse vibration dust collector, which mainly collects the dust generated when the materials are put into the silo, so that the concentration of dust emission is lower than 30mg/m³.
4. Flexible process layout: it can be arranged in various forms according to the actual situation on site. The direction of the unloading corridor and the choice of lifting equipment can be determined according to the actual situation on site. The layout of welded steel silo is free and flexible, which can meet various needs of customers.
5. Wide storage and application: Welded steel silo can be used to store industrial bulk materials such as cement, clinker, slag powder, fly ash, sand, aggregate, etc. It is widely used in cement factories, thermal power plants, iron and steel plants, mines and other industries.
6. Short construction period and long service life: the construction period usually varies according to different geological conditions, site environment and capacity. Generally speaking, the construction period of welded steel silo is about 4 months, and its service life can reach 30-50 years.
7. Low maintenance costs: The discharge equipment of welded steel silos has almost no maintenance costs. If maintained according to specifications for corrosion protection, it only needs to be painted every few years to ensure a reliable service life of 30 years. There is no visible corrosion on the outside, saving maintenance and protection costs.

How to choose the right steel silo?

Correct design

The diameter of a proper steel silo can generally be regulated from 3.6 to 27.5 m and can be increased for special requirements. The ratio of diameter to height is usually between 1:1.1 and 1.1:1.5, which is in line with the correct steel silo design model. Incorrect design ratios can undermine the stability and durability of the silo.

Structural Rationality

Ideally, a steel silo should have a cylindrical body with a segmented top and bottom, and a foundation of round pillars is generally preferred. Such an infrastructure and internal building structure ensures stability.

Large storage capacity

A qualified steel silo should have a capacity of 5-10,000 tonnes per silo. The larger the capacity, the more material can be stored, which is more appropriate from the point of view of cost-effectiveness.

Short construction time

In general, the construction of an ordinary steel silo can be completed in about 90 days. A shorter construction time results in a quicker commissioning and reduced waiting costs.

Advanced unloading system

Advanced unloading systems should be chosen wherever possible at a reasonable price. For example, gravity discharge can be used for hopper-bottomed steel silos, and flat-bottomed cement silos can be discharged with a flat-bottomed chute sweep.

Safety and reliability

Although steel silos generally do not cause serious safety problems, there are still some safety details that need attention. For example, the vacuum sealing of the steel silo should be good, so as to store materials for a long time and ensure stable performance indicators.

Energy saving and environmental protection

During the feeding and discharging process, dust collectors should be equipped as much as possible to reduce dust emission and achieve energy saving and environmental protection.

Customised function

Enterprises should combine their own needs to customise reasonable functions of the steel silo. For example, some enterprises need to store grains and materials, which need to consider the temperature design inside the steel silo as well as issues such as cleaning and maintenance.

Conclusion

Stainless steel silos are mainly divided into three types: bolted steel silos, spiral steel silos and welded steel silos. Each type has its unique characteristics and applicable scenarios. Bolted steel silos have the advantages of easy installation and easy maintenance; spiral steel silos have high strength and short construction period; and welded steel silos excel in storage capacity and service life.

When choosing a steel silo, a number of factors need to be considered, including correct design, structural rationality, storage capacity, construction time, unloading system, safety and reliability, energy saving and environmental protection, as well as enterprise-specific needs. Only on the basis of fully weighing the costs, functions and individual needs of enterprises can the most suitable steel silo be selected to provide strong support for the production and operation of enterprises.