Silo and Bin Cleaning
If your facility handles and stores large quantities of dry bulk materials, chances are you are all too familiar with the problems that come with silo and bin storage. Spectrum Environmental Services hydraulic (bin) whip is designed for safer, faster, and easier cleaning of your storage vessels. The bin whip and drill allow for the safest way to clean a vessel by unmanned entry.
Factors such as moisture, heat, the flow properties of your bulk materials, and level of aeration can all have adverse effects on your material’s flow rate over time. These types of problems usually start as a somewhat slower flow rate and are often dismissed as minor – annoying but not worth shutting down the production line to address.
Over just a short amount of time, minor flow rate problems can escalate to a point where the silo is plugged and virtually no material is flowing out of it. The production line is severely impacted and may have to shut down to perform emergency silo cleaning. Even worse: if the obstruction is caused by material ratholing or bridging, there is the potential for the plugged material to collapse inside the vessel. Such a collapse could cause structural damage or failure of the vessel, as well as cause injuries to nearby employees.
Nothing good comes from lower production rates, health and safety risks, and emergency shutdowns. It makes sense that your bulk storage vessels should be on a preventative cleaning schedule to optimize production, maximize profits, and ensure employee safety. Even so…things happen, and sometimes those bins and silos suddenly get stopped up. Despite all your planning and maintenance, your plant is in an emergency shutdown situation, and you need help.
Spectrum Environmental Services can help you manage flow rate problems with your silos and bins, either through regularly scheduled preventative maintenance or on an emergency-response basis. Here’s how:
Bin Whipping: Spectrum uses a hydraulic whip that is designed for safer, faster, and easier cleaning of your silos. The whip is operated from the top of your silo, thereby avoiding the need for confined space entry. It will forcefully remove materials without damaging your vessel walls, restoring your silo back to nearly 100% of its original flow rate capacity. It can be used to clean vessels measuring from 4’ wide x 4’ high and up to 60’ wide x 200’ high. Our bin whip only requires a 220/440 Volt 3-phase power hookup.
Bin Drilling: For difficult materials that are bridged within your silo, Spectrum uses a bin drill to start the cleaning process. Like our bin whip, our drill is operated from the top of the silo, eliminating the need for confined space entry. We can drill depths up to 150 feet deep to create a starter hole that will allow us to switch over to using our bin whip to start removing material inside your vessel. Like our bin whip, our bin drill requires a 220/440 Volt 3-phase power hookup for use with your vessel.
Vacuum Truck and Water Blast Services: The process of cleaning silos and bins can sometimes create debris that cannot easily exit the vessel. Spectrum has vacuum trucks available for use to remove and relocate stubborn debris generated by the cleaning process. If materials cannot be removed via drilling and whipping, Spectrum has water blasters available for washing out the vessel interior as necessary.
Confined Space Entry: If required – and if it can be done safely – Spectrum employees can enter the silo or bin to facilitate the cleaning process. Prior to any confined space entry, a Spectrum employee will conduct a Job Safety Analysis to identify hazards they may face when entering the vessel, to determine the proper PPE needed, and any other special safety precautions the job may require.
Before getting started with any bin or silo cleaning project, Spectrum will ask you to complete a Vessel Data Questionnaire. This document represents the first step in our efforts to put together a proposal that provides you with the most efficient and cost-effective solution to your vessel’s flow rate problems. The questionnaire is thorough and asks you to describe the vessel’s problem, provide a graphic representation of the silo or bin’s blockage, and provide details on the vessel’s maintenance history, internal/external configuration, power availability at the vessel’s location, how the vessel is normally discharged, SDS information regarding the material inside the vessel, and details regarding your safety program.
Whether you need emergency silo or bin cleaning or would like to set up a preventative maintenance program, Spectrum is ready and able to help! Don’t let silo or bin blockages or flow rate problems cause you any safety or production issues…reach out to us today and let’s review what Spectrum can do for you!
