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STORAGE
Can thinking smart beat thinking big?
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TSC’S square silos around the world by Vaughn Entwistle, Managing Editor, Milling and Grain op Silo Constructions (TSC) is a Dutch company which supplies and installs silos for both feed and food supply chains. On July 7th, 2020, they hosted a twenty-minute webinar entitled ‘Storage: Can thinking smart beat thinking big?’ The webinar was hosted by Lars Oostveen who explained that storage is a fundamental and necessary part of any food or feed mill.
always been about maximising storage volume for the minimum cost in the feed and food processing industry, recent trends and world events have reinforced the importance of efficient storage. TSC specialises in square silo systems to customers around the world. Their square silo designs provide numerous advantages: modular, integrated, efficient, versatile, hygienic and, of increasing importance in our uncertain times, flexibility. In the case of feed deliveries, the square design’s space efficiency, allowing square units to be concentrated on a small footprint, maximises land use.
Approaches to storage planning
Swiss experience of smooth-sided silos
The webinar provided practical examples of how a thoughtful, reasoned approach to storage design provides a more flexible approach to storage planning and produces more economical and efficient results that also allow for future expansion. The first example involved a case study of a Klaramill, a Dutch veal producer that operates its own feed mill using TSC square silos in its design. Rober-Jan Klaranbeek of Klaramill explains that veal is a premium product and customers expect that feed will likewise include premium ingredients. Customers expect their veal to be a pure white colour. If there is any dust in the feed silo it can affect the colour of the veal and make it less than pure white. Therefore, dust prevention in the feed silo is very important. Preventing dust in the silo requires precision building as Sven Konings, Commercial Manager at TSC, explains, “TSC is very accurate in building silos which provides a good connection between silo walls and floors, as it prevents dust from accumulating on floors.”
The advantages of square silos
The webinar continued by exploring the advantages of square bins versus round silos for both feed and food. While storage has 84 | August 2020 - Milling and Grain
Christian Lütolf, Manager of Firma Lütolf A.G. Switzerland provided another practical example of the advantages of TSC’s modular design utilising square smooth-sided silos. This Swiss company supplies raw materials for the food and feed industry. They began with single concrete silo back in the 1970s. In 1990, they added a silo for grains. In 2020, the company purchased a huge TSC steel silo block with 31 large cells and a number of smaller cells for small batches. The smooth-sided silo block is used for difficult flowing products where output capacity is important. Lütolf explained that he chose to work with TSC for a number of reasons, “Flexibility is important to our business because our different customers have different requirements. We chose to go with TSC because we enjoyed working with them and they offered the best combination of experience, advice, and the best price.”
Contractor’s choose TSC for many reasons
Hans Olssen is an expert who designs storage systems across Sweden and Norway. “The outlet interface must work smoothly with no interruptions,” Olssen explains. “You need to have efficient flow