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Silo cleaning is an essential part of silo ownership. It also saves you money and maximizes production and profit. Avoiding compaction and hydration of material through regular emptying and cleaning keeps your silo in proper working order. When stored material becomes too compacted, it must be removed by a professional cleaning company. An efficiently working silo helps you meet production goals.
By removing material buildup, silos are returned to their original storage capacity, and material flow issues that can slow down production are corrected. Clogged or slow running silos are a problem that will interfere with efficiency and profitability. Material buildup deters the silo from reaching its full capacity. Once a silo begins to lose flow, this accelerates the buildup over time and can lead to additional blockages. Removing this buildup can also allow you to recover lost material. Our professional team maximizes the cost-effectiveness of your silo cleaning operations by supplying the necessary industrial vacuum truck services to meet the requirements of your situation.
The Boss - Silo Cleaning Techniques
Professional silo cleaning companies typically use a remote, dry cleaning system to remove stubborn material buildup. The most powerful system available in the U.S. is a unique clean-out head, The Boss, proprietary to USA Silo Service that is 65% more powerful than other pneumatic systems. By removing more material faster and more efficiently than any other clean-out method, including the whip system, The Boss accelerates the cleaning process. This minimizes downtime and time spent on-site, providing immediate cost savings.
The Boss is a unique clean-out head designed to accommodate variable attachments selected by our field crews to match the type of material being removed. Our silo cleaning technique includes operating in a systematic pattern within the silo to remove the toughest buildups.
The Takeaway
Regularly cleaning your silo can help keep it operating efficiently and limit potential liabilities. Regular cleanings also increase your silo's usable lifespan, minimize big-ticket repairs, and avoid more costly cleaning expenses. In addition, professional silo cleaning saves you time and money by removing buildup and recovering lost material.
USA Silo Service, Inc. is a silo and bin cleaning, bulk storage removal/clean-out and industrial coating corporation that has serviced the needs of the industry for almost thirty years. Our silo cleaning services have been successfully performed throughout the United States and Canada and have proven benefits for our customers. USA Silo Service also provides vacuum truck and material disposal services to assist in removing and relocating silo debris. Our professional team also responds quickly to emergency silo cleaning needs.
Check out our full library of videos on silo cleaning, construction, inspection and repair on for more information.
Jumpform silo construction is a newer construction method that has been used for the last 30 to 40 years. While it is a more economical solution to silo construction, the end result is also one of the strongest construction types available.
The system relies on a Jumpform machine, or rig, consisting of a form and scaffolding system. This reusable silo framework is set up in just a few days. The system is available in a variety of diameter sizes, from 10' to 65'. Once the desired diameter is selected, the system is assembled on site. Once in place, reinforcement steel is set, quality control is checked, and the inside form is created. Concrete is then poured into this frame in a slow, controlled process in 4' tall intervals until the desired height is reached.
The ability to ensure the quality of the reinforcement steel placement and equipment before pouring the concrete directly results in a high-quality concrete silo. Once completed, the silo will retain a grid-like pattern on the exterior where the form had been in place.
What makes Jumpform silo construction so economical? In addition to the reusable frame, the incremental schedule, rather than the continuous schedule used in Slipform construction, reduces costs by approximately 20%.
Additional benefits:
- The construction process is not adversely affected by weather events. Since the silo is constructed in 4' segments, it is easy to halt construction and pick up where it left off.
- The incremental process also allows staggered delivery of construction materials. This keeps the construction area smaller.
To learn the step-by-step Jumpform process and to understand its efficiencies, watch our Jumpform silo video.
Check out our full library of silo inspection videos on silo maintenance, inspection and repair on for more information.
Time, weather and usage are all contributors to the degradation of silo structures. How often you keep your silo topped off and what kind of material you store can also impact how your silo performs. To keep your silo utilization high and your production goals on target, it's just as important to prevent material flow issues and compaction as it is to address visible damage like cracks, spalling or rust. It's important to observe your silo or storage dome frequently for signs of damage or changes in performance. This helps ensure you catch warning signs early on to address issues before they reach a critical level. However, an in-house silo inspection, cleaning, or repair should never replace professional services. Doing so increases safety risks and can lead to missed or exacerbated issues that may result in structural failure, possible environmental damage, injury, or loss of life.
When it comes to the proper intervals for silo inspections, best practices recommend professional inspections at two- to five-year intervals to help identify any issues that could lead to silo failure. Silo inspections should include examining the main aspects known to be potential areas of failure. These inspections should consist of the foundations, walls, cones, discharge configuration, floors, shelves, tunnels, and roofs.
Experienced silo inspectors or silo engineers can only identify many serious issues during an in-depth examination of silos that are empty and free from material buildup. Therefore, when combined with silo cleaning, however, a professional silo inspection can thoroughly examine the inside of the silo structure, including roof beams and beam pockets, cones, floors, shelves and tunnels for signs of wear or damage.
Sticking to a regular silo inspection schedule with a trusted professional silo inspection company pays for itself. Thorough inspection and silo maintenance, you increase the useful life of your silo, reduce unplanned downtime, and uphold production goals. What's more, the lack of silo maintenance is a leading cause of silo failure.
View our video, How Often Should I Have My Silo Inspected, or view our full library of videos on silo inspection, silo maintenance, and silo restoration on .