A silo is a structure where wholesale materials are preserved or stored in bulk or in significantly higher quantities than other storage system capacities. Storage silo fabrication often depends on the size of the enterprise and its requirements.

Silos are more commonly used for the bulk storage of grain and food products. In fact, they can make a significant difference to your farming business in terms of potentially storing produce or waste in an efficient and effective manner.

The first silos were made to advance industrialization beginning in the 19th century in Europe. However, these early silos were mainly wells drilled in soil.

Today, most silos consist of a high cylindrical structure made according to special methods. For example, steel silos can ensure the protection of thousands of tons of produce in a narrow space for a long time!

Types of Storage Silos and How They Can Help Store And Protect Your Farm Produce

1. Tower Silos

Tower silos are storage silos made into a cylindrical structure. They can be made of many materials such as wood staves, concrete staves, cast concrete, and steel panels. Silos can be unloaded into rail cars, trucks or conveyors. Some of the advantages of tower silos are:

• Storage materials tend to pack well due to its own weight
• Requires less area for construction
• Allows greater mechanization during filling and feed out

2. Bunker Silos

Bunker silos are trenches, usually with concrete walls, that are filled and packed with tractors and loaders. After that, the filled trench is usually covered with a plastic tarp to make it airtight. A few advantages of bunker silos are:

• Holds very high capacity of storage
• Can be filled with conventional farm equipment
• Offers faster unloading rates as well as being inexpensive
• Forage quality changes occur gradually if filled using the progressive wedge
• Well-suited to large-scaled operations and enterprises

3. Silo Bags

Bag silos are essentially heavy plastic tubes of variable length as required for the amount of material to be stored. They are packed using a machine made for that specific purpose and can be effectively sealed on both ends. While it's significantly different to other silo systems, silo bags are:

• Cheaper as they require lower capital investment
• A highly flexible storage system
• Can be used for small and large herds
• Fewer safety and health hazards as well as lower storage losses

Advantages Of Storage Silos To Many Farming Businesses Today

1. Storage silos consume less storage space compared to horizontal storage warehouses
2. The materials or products are stored under optimal conditions
3. Storage silos cost less compared to other storage options

Process of Storage Silo Fabrication

With today's modern manufacturing capabilities, there are a wide range of construction materials used to build silos today including steel, aluminum, wood and even concrete.

For most food and fuel related purposes, aluminum and stainless steel are most common. This is because it is relatively easy for a metal fabricator to manipulate sheets of metal to form a solid ring, and then stack those rings together to form one contiguous structure.

Next, depending on the height and weight needs of the silo, aluminum or steel framing around the inside and outside of the silo can also help improve the structural integrity of the silo, especially for vertical builds that are subject to a variety of weather conditions and shifting weight inside.

Silos can be built to nearly any dimensions and specifications with the right storage silo fabrication provider.

The type of material to be stored in the tank will determine what type of construction materials and finishing products should be used. A knowledgeable storage silo fabricator can make recommendations based on their experience with processing, welding and painting.

While the term silo is most often associated with vertical storage structures, there are also many different silo systems that are designed for horizontal storage.

That being said, vertical storage does have many advantages and has been deemed the most cost effective and safest way to handle bulk material due to the natural tendency for product to flow smoothly from top to bottom within the tank. 

Looking for an expert storage silo fabricator? Try Choong Ngai Engineering

With Choong Ngai Engineering's veteran technicians and engineers, we can provide a start-to-end manufacturing and troubleshooting process of fabricating your storage silos.

Most importantly, we'll work alongside you and your team to understand and define your exact requirements, and this process ensures that we provide the best solution to your unique maintenance requirements.

With our metal fabrication equipment and technique, we've been servicing happy customers for over 20 years. Learn more about our services and previous projects on our website or contact us at choonngaiengworks@gmail.com