How To Determine Which Storage Silo Is Best For You

Jul. 14, 2025

How To Determine Which Storage Silo Is Best For You

September 20,

Answer these questions to avoid surprises with your bulk storage

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Let’s face it, selecting a silo for your storage needs isn’t like picking out a pair of socks. It’s a big decision. There are a lot of variables and plenty at stake, not the least of which is the safety of your colleagues and the success of your business. It can make the decision overwhelming. As a storage silo manufacturer, I’ve fielded every kind of question you can imagine. Whether it’s a request for simple additional storage or designing a silo suitable for storing unique materials – from coal dust to plastic additives – I’ve heard it all. And I always say the same thing: There is a solution for everyone.

The trick is to ask yourself a series of questions before you move forward. I will list them out here. These are all variables that need to be addressed before a silo can be bid, designed, built or shipped. But the process doesn’t have to be confusing. In fact, it can be rewarding. Just take it one question at a time.

What Will You Be Storing?
Create a list of your application’s specific requirements before you engage a silo vendor. Tell your vendor the characteristics of the material you’re storing, including particle size (such as fine powder or granular), abrasiveness, and density. Think about how you intend to feed and discharge material from the silo. This will help determine the most cost-effective option. And consider whether your material’s composition is such that your silo will require flow-aid devices such as bin activators, vibrators, aeration, or mechanical agitation. Also consider how much of this material you’ll need to meet your supply chain needs. No matter what chemicals you are storing, your silo will likely require components such as dust collector flanges, manways, nozzles, flow control, stairways, and peripheral conveyor supports. Familiarize yourself with these terms in advance. For specific information on structural steel construction, you might review such reference books as Structural Engineering Handbook and Manual Of Street Construction.

Understand that most silos are pneumatically fed, some are gravity fed, and others have mechanical feeding systems. The feed and discharge systems are separate entities from the silo weldment and vary from customer to customer depending on what they are storing, what they are used to using, and how they want (or need) to handle the product. This part of the system is the responsibility of the company doing the material handling on behalf of the end customer.

How Much Construction Time Is Required?
The construction of the silo can and should be a straightforward process. You want to avoid last-minute changes. Changes can happen for a number of reasons and be costly. Common changes include a sudden requirement to add capacity, which could involve a height change, diameter change or even additional silos. If the design of the handling system is changed, it can affect the silo design. This can include changes to silo connections, discharge clearances and overall dimensions. Changes in product bulk density can also have a significant impact. I’ve seen a 40 pounds per cubic feet (PCF) design go to a 45 PCF design, which on a 5,000 CF silo amounts to an added dead load of 25,000 pounds.

Give careful thought to your timeline and budget and expectations at the planning stage. You don’t want to rush anything. Build in plenty of time to adjust for conditions. Your timeline will be influenced by the type of site you are building on. A greenfield site is new construction; a brownfield site is adding to an existing facility. When installing a silo next to existing equipment on a brownfield site, you can’t afford down time. Make sure you talk to your site contractor about all the variables, from using a crane to setting up scaffolding. Do as much up-front planning as possible to ensure your construction runs smoothly and on time.

To give you a sense of the duration of a project, give three or four weeks for an engineering timeline, during which you consider and approve drawings, and eight to 10 weeks for fabrication following the customer’s final project approval. Of course, lead times go up and down according to the size and complexity of a project. But that should give you a good sense.

For more information, please visit Dry bulk storage silos.

How Would You Like Your Silo To Look?
Paint systems can range from no coating at all to sophisticated multi-coat paint systems. Some coatings require inspection in order to satisfy federal, state, and city regulations. With such a wide variety of paints, your vendor needs to be a specialist in the field who can guide you through the decision-making. It’s not just a matter of picking blue because you like blue. The paint coatings not only provide your appearance to the public but serve as protection from corrosion and other damage. Make it a decision that will work for you on aesthetic and pragmatic levels. And understand that coatings are essential. They provide corrosion and abrasion resistance. The higher quality means more protection during the life of the silo. Take into account the impact weather will have on it. Rain can cause inadequate coatings to delaminate from the surface. The heat and cold cycles can cause the metal to expand and contract, which could cause the coatings to separate. The pounding from the sun’s ultraviolet rays can accelerate coating deterioration and chalking. Consider all these factors. The right coating can make all the difference. The good news is a quality vendor will be experienced in planning for all these scenarios.

The most common coatings tend to be epoxy primer with polyurethane topcoats. Custom coatings, which are usually customer specified, can range from primer only to high-end zinc prime/epoxy mid-coat/polyurethane topcoat. Custom color match is usually available and coating life usually can last up to 20 years with proper maintenance.

Where Will the Silo Be Located?
It’s the old real estate maxim: location, location, location. Consider the size of the area where the silo will be located. This will help determine the silo type and construction method. Then ask yourself how the silo will get there. Make sure your vendor is capable of transporting and installing the silo in the area. Ask detailed questions about the logistics of the transport. Inquire about specialized trailers, which allow for maneuverability and can be lowered or raised in the air depending on site circumstances. Silos generally can be manufactured up to 16 feet in diameter and shipped in one piece up to 90 feet long with a 90,000 pound weight. Construction, size and weight are defined by the structural requirements more so than the size requirements.

In geographic terms, the location of your silo can be affected by local building codes and other safety regulations that apply to the project. This affects the design, construction and installation of your silo and needs to be considered upfront. Some locations may require a permit, too. Vendors follow the current IBC standard building codes for the specific job site location in question. There are no specific design codes for dry bulk silos so a combination of API, ASME and AWWI are used at certain times to calculate allowable stresses and other design factors.

How Will The Silo Be Maintained?
You need to consider what you’ll need to do to maintain high performance at minimal cost throughout the life of the silo. Make sure your silo has easy access to internal components for routine maintenance. Periodic inspection by customer maintenance people is required to keep up with paint touch-up and other minor issues. As your silo ages, look to your manufacturer to provide inspection services to ensure its safe and lasting operation. Eventually, many years down the road, these inspections can help you assess whether to repair or replace your silo.

There are more things that go into the decision, such as the customer’s budget for the storage part of the system, the customer’s expectations to have the new system in place before needing additional storage or material handling equipment, and what the customer’s needs will be five years from now, but these are the biggies.

If you get through these questions you will put yourself in a great position to have a storage silo that is quality-built and pleasing to the eye, which will serve your company effectively for many years.

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Questions about Cement Industry, storage silos

A couple of years ago, I had a friend who switched from HO to On30, so he gave me a bunch of his HO stuff. One of the things he gave me was a Walthers "Medusa Cement Co." which was fully assembled, minus the billboard sign. Here's a link on the Walthers website. Apparently it's out of production now:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-

I didn't get the box or instructions with it, so I didn't get the usual literature about the industry and its use that comes with most Walthers building kits. I've done a little research about the cement industry online, but still have a few questions before I can make a decision about putting this industry on my layout or not.

The only place I could put it on my layout is in an industrial switching area, which would have a variety of other industries. I know there are some air quality issues around cement processing/storage facilities, so would it be feasible to find storage silos like this in a populated area, such as an urban industrial area? Or would they be more isolated because of the dust/particulate issue? Are there any industries that you absolutely wouldn't put it next to (like maybe a factory that produces food or beverages)?

How common is it to see storage silos like this as a standalone facility? I would think it would be part of a larger cement production plant or a concrete batch plant.

Could this model be used in its existing configuration as a grain elevator (or some other bulk material) instead? If not, what would I need to add/modify to do so?

Thanks in advance. Ken has it right. The Walthers model is really a cement distributor, not a manufacturing plant. In the real world, the portland cement would be delivered by rail and then removed from the covered hopper by pneumatic lines and carried to the top of the silos and dumped through the bag house to control the dust. The other side of the plant would usually have truck loading if there's no batch plant on-site, which is common for cement distributors in large cities. Most of the cement is picked up and delivered to portable batch plants set up for specific projects like large buildings.

A cement storage facility would usually be located in an older, more grimy industrial section of town rather than an industrial park so you would never find one in the same area as something like a food or beverage maker.

A cement storage plant could not be used as is for a grain elevator because the unloading and storage methods are completely different. Grain elevators are usually filled from a bottom dumping hopper and cement plant from top discharge hoppers. That's why you see the tall vent like stack running up the side of the model. You also wouldn't find large roll up type doors on grain silos. You'd have to do quite a bit of detail changes to this kit to use it for anything other than a cement storage plant. Now, you can call it whatever you want and the average person is not going to know the difference anyway. Most people think anything with silos is a grain elevator. Ken & Jim - thanks for the feedback, that's pretty much exactly the information I was looking for. I know cement plants are huge operations and that all I have (and have room for) is this storage/distribution facility. I had just never seen one in real life and didn't realize they existed separately from the main cement plants or concrete batch plants.

I think I'll stick with the cement distributor as an industry, but will have to choose adjacent industries accordingly. I wanted to have (part of) a breakfast cereal factory (an excuse to use covered grain hoppers and corn syrup tank cars), but I'll find another area on the layout to put that.

I do have a follow up question from Jim's post, though - exactly how does the cement get from the rail cars into the storage silos? I assume it's discharged from the bottom of the hopper somehow. I thought it was conveyed to the top of the silos by a traditional bucket elevator, but it sounds like it's done using air pressure? Is it sucked up to the top in a pipeline? What exactly is inside that external duct structure on the Walthers model?

So many questions, makes my head hurt! Here's a live maps pic's of two huge Cement plants 8 miles north of me.

This one is Florida Crushed Stone Co. Plant:http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v...dir=0&alt=-&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

And this one is portland/Cemex plant north of that about 2 miles:
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v...dir=0&alt=-&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

there was a third mine between those two mines but they mined it out 15 years ago!
it was here: http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v...00&scene=&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

Their out put is on the average of 150 to 200 cement cars a week! and take in and a unit coal train each a week! When those mines dry up(and they will) that line will more than likely be turned in to a bike trail

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