From highways to bridges to roads and more, concrete is the foundation for just about everything. But today, concrete faces the same challenges impacting other essential materials: supply chain disruptions and labor shortages. At the same time, demand for concrete — and its essential ingredient, cement — continues to increase after the Senate passed the $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act in 2021 to upgrade America’s roads, bridges and tunnels.
To meet higher-than-ever demand while exceeding higher-than-ever customer expectations, concrete producers are taking steps to control their supply chain and minimize production interruptions. One way they’re doing this is by storing cement in bulk quantities in silos while leveraging Silo Dust Collectors to manage emissions during material transfer processes.
Discover the importance of a highly engineered, high-performing silo dust collection system.
What is a Silo Dust Collector?
In its simplest form, a silo is a holding bin for dry ingredients – cement, sand, aggregates, gravel and others – waiting to be mixed with water to form concrete. Today, producers are acquiring silos to allow them to purchase and store their ingredients in large batches, keeping the prices of finished products down, ensuring consistent supply and overall increasing efficiency at the plant.
Concrete producers with silos must also integrate advanced dust collection technologies to capture fugitive dust throughout the process of transferring materials from the silo into the production process. A highly engineered Silo Dust Collector can help reduce and control the amount of dust that escapes into the air from the top of cement silos, truck unloading, ash storage, mixing stations and other equipment.
How to Properly Size Your Silo Collector
A properly sized dust collector is key to increasing production efficiencies, minimizing risk and ensuring peak system performance. When designing a silo dust collector, you must identify the following to determine which solution is the right fit for your application.
Fill Line Size: Available in 4”, 5” or 6” fill lines.
Quantity Of Lines Filling at One Time: Single or multiple.
Air Flow and Pressure: Pressure above 1.5 psi can damage your silo dust collector.
Loading Time: Proper loading speed is crucial to high system performance.
Once you’ve identified these critical attributes, you can work with your dust collection partner to design a Silo Dust Collector to help keep your plant running at optimal performance.
Designing a High-Performing System
Silo Dust Collectors provide a highly effective and affordable solution for dust control. Offering pulse jet technology or mechanical technologies, Silo Dust Collectors are compact and easy-to-use. A custom-engineered solution will help you outperform in industries such as Ready-Mix Concrete, Cement Production, Mining and Minerals and more.
Below are key options to customize your properly sized dust collection system and help meet the demand of industrial applications.
Minihelic Gauge
Special Adaptable Mounting Flange
Air Tank Auto-Drain
Pressure Relief Valves and Bin Indicators
On/Off Flow Switch to automatically start the cleaning cycle – This feature detects the flow of air through the silo and turns the cleaning cycle on while the silo is being filled. When the flow of material into the silo stops, the unit automatically turns the cleaning cycle off.
Do I need a Pressure Relief Valve?
Whenever a silo is being filled by a pneumatic offloading system, high pressure is forcing material into the silo. The Pressure Relief Valve, or “pop-off valve” will allow the pressure to escape preventing any additional damage. Talk with your dust collection partner to assess if your system should have a Pressure Relief Valve.
Protect Your System Against Overfilling, Over Pressuring and Filter Leaks
To protect the integrity of your silo, leverage Silo Saver Systems for high-level protection. These systems help producers manage and prevent the overfill of material and excess pressurization that could negatively impact your employees and processes. They do this by automating processes to eliminate human error, ultimately preventing damage and accidents that lead to unplanned downtime.
These systems are comprised of four key components: Alarm Warning Panel, Pressure Sensor, High Level Indicator and Pinch Valve.
