Movable bunker silo covers
The Dutch company Kroftman Structures B.V. has enlarged their portfolio with movable bunker silo covers which enable the more efficient use of semi-permanent storage boxes and bunker silos. Kroftmann has already installed the first unit: on the premises of the company IJsselbeton in De Steeg near the German border.
The concrete blocks from Ijsselbeton (Legio blocks), which can be stacked on top of each other, were the perfect operation site for the first sliding cover from Kroftmann. The sliding mechanism is an extension of the already existing types of cover, which protect the raw materials from precipitation and other weather influences (Fig. 1).The benefits of this sliding system become particularly apparent when bulk material is dumped into the silo. The principle is quite simple: When a lorry needs to tip its load, the cover can be returned to the point where the lorry has reached the required place in the warehouse (Fig. 2).
“In order that a lorry can tip its load in the storage box, you easily need a height of 12 m. With a rigid cover with a width of up to 15 m, you cannot realize this height. Therefore, we have developed this solution. Thanks to the sliding mechanism, the bunker silo cover can be opened or closed in an instant - either by a roller assembly or manually”, explains Thierry Tiedink, Managing Director of Kroftman. “With this, we enable the lorry’s driving into the storage box to dump its bulk material at the desired place.”
The slidable covers are tailor-made solutions. They have a maximum width of 15 m with no restrictions in length. Besides the assembly on concrete blocks, the covers can also be installed on silos and concrete walls. For this type of covers, permanent building permits are available - even for all snow load zones in Germany.
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