Grain silo

A silo (from the Greek σιρός – siros, "pit for holding grain") is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are used in agriculture to store grain (see grain elevators) or fermented feed known as silage. Silos are more commonly used for bulk storage of grain, coal, cement, carbon black, woodchips, food products and sawdust. Three types of silos are in widespread use today: tower silos, bunker silos, and bag silos.

There are different types of cement silos such as the low-level mobile silo and the static upright cement silo, which are used to hold and discharge cement and other powder materials such as PFA (Pulverised Fuel Ash). The low-level silos are fully mobile with capacities from 10 to 75 tons. They are simple to transport and are easy to set up on site. These mobile silos generally come equipped with an electronic weighing system with digital display and printer. This allows any quantity of cement or powder discharged from the silo to be controlled and also provides an accurate indication of what remains inside the silo. The static upright silos have capacities from 20 to 80 tons. These are considered a low-maintenance option for the storage of cement or other powders. Cement silos can be used in conjunction with bin-fed batching plants.

Cement can be stored in different types of Silos like Horizontal Mobile Silos, Concrete Silos, Steel Panel Silos etc. depending upon the requirement of the end user. While Mobile Silos come in a relatively small storage capacity of approximately 90MT of Cement, Concrete Silos can store practically thousands of MT of Cement. A majority of Silos that store more than 5000 MT of Cement are constructed from Concrete. A good compromise between cost, construction time and ease of operation is Steel Panel Silos. These silos can be manufactured in a factory, and then erected at site using small panels that are bolted together to form a Silo that is watertight because of a sandwiched layer of special rubber seals.

Storage silos are cylindrical structures, typically 10 to 90 ft (3 to 27 m) in diameter and 30 to 275 ft (10 to 90 m) in height with the slipform and Jumpform concrete silos being the larger diameter and taller silos. They can be made of many materials. Wood staves, concrete staves, cast concrete, and steel panels have all been used, and have varying cost, durability, and airtightness tradeoffs. Silos storing grain, cement and woodchips are typically unloaded with air slides or augers. Silos can be unloaded into rail cars, trucks or conveyors.

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